The title of today’s blog says it all really.  If not for Spurs having an even worse time of it than us, the media would most likely be making a bigger deal out of Everton’s shockingly bad start to the season than they currently are and I would feel even worse about it.  As things stand, at least Everton can struggle on slightly under the radar, dropping points as we go and appearing to play at times in a more shambolic fashion than Kerry Katona’s daytime TV appearances.

I am fully of the belief that we will start winning games again soon and we have seen short glimpses that all is not lost in terms of our squad’s ability to play the game of football, but it has not lasted for nearly enough of the 90+ minutes a match it needs to.

My feelings after the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal last Saturday were complete and utter frustration at the way in which we allowed the Gunners back into the game.  Of course they are a fantastic team of very talented players, but in the first half we managed, pretty sucessfully for the most part, to stop them getting into their flow and we scored a very decent goal.  Yet as soon as we conceded early in the second half, we resorted to something which has never ever worked against a team like Arsenal – it is not called football.  It is called hoofball.

Everton FC, in 2008, have a very decent bunch of players who are very capable of playing good football. Yet over and over again we make the same mistakes.  The defence get panicky when we concede one and don’t want to risk making a mistake, so instead of actually using the midfield, they bypass them and lump the ball up to a lone striker (who doesn’t jump) and inevitably lose possession, thus inviting another wave of attack by the opposition and self-perpetuating our own downfall.  Our defence, which has looked shaky at best recently, is certainly no match for 50 minutes of constant Arsenal onslaught.

I can’t entirely blame the back four for this, as our midfield seem to rarely show for the ball and look sluggish and uncommitted a lot of the time.  My personal opinion is that the captain’s armband should be earned, and in the last year or so I have seen little in Mikel Arteta’s play which justifies him getting the nod over players like Phil Jagielka, who has displayed his heart on his sleeve in every match so far during this slump.

There were some positive signs that we aren’t that far away from some winning form, but sadly I can’t see it happening before we host Man Utd at the weekend.  A team who are scoring goals for fun against a team who are letting them in like nobody’s business doesn’t fill me with confidence and I will most likely arrive at Goodison with a certain amount of trepidation on Saturday.  Add into that the statistic that a certain player called Rooney needs just one more goal to bring his Premier League total to 100 and I can’t help feeling that there is a certain inevitability about what will take place.

I usually cling to even a slight amount of optimism before matches like this because form doesn’t account for everything.  What matters is the 90 minutes starting at 12.00 on Saturday and if we magically manage to keep our concentration and confidence for most of it then we stand a chance of resisting humiliation.  That is the brightest spin I can put on it at the moment.  I very much hope to be able to blog again on Sunday and eat my words!

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