Those 3 stars on City’s crest! Did Oasis really have 3 Number Ones?

I agree, Jay. It's scary to see how good this Everton team could be considering that was without Hibbert, Yobo, Jagileka, Osman, Rodwell, Artetea, Anichebe & Yakubu.

To think that some balloon heads come on here and still have the cheek to call for DM’s head just shows what little they know.

Feeling very proud again tonight.

Its been coming for a few weeks now, barring Carlisle our performances since just before xmas have been excellant and finally a good result to back it up.

Fellaini was simply awesome today, reminded me of the player I watched dominate the RS midfield for Leige a couple of seasons back.

I have been a doubter of Bily on here in the past but I thought he had his best game in an Everton shirt today and showed some real class at times.

Pienaar simply outstanding, and Heitenga getting stronger and stronger, all over the park we were fantastic.

One moment really grabbed me though when the tv cameras shot to Arteta and Jageilka in the stands, when these guys are back available for us and the Yak back from the ANC, I genuinely believe we are a match for anyone.

I am actually looking forward to a difficult February schedule now with some confidence, wins at Anfield and Goodison v Man Utd would pull this season back into shape.

Come on the blues!

Still can't believe that there are some Moyes baiters posting all that shit on here. That was the best performance I’ve seen in ages. ALL the players were up for it. To see a £32 mill player brought on then brought off is simply a credit to the work ethic Moyes has created.

Fucking A grade today, I’m proud to be an Evertonian living in manchester.
ps: My mobile is quiet tonight (wonder why?)...

I’m half way through my humble pie tonight. The reason, Fellaini. I hold my hands up, the lad has been awesome the last few games, and tonight he was head and shoulders above anyone else on the park, he made Barry look like a championship player.

The best thing was that City looked clueless, and we just took the piss out of them. Also, I’ve been slated on here saying that you don’t need money to play football, and it’s just been proven by us against Arsenal and City that you don’t.

So I may have had a few whiskeys too many, but some of the football tonight brought a tear to the eye. It does the heart god to see our Blue Boys play like that. As others have said, Felli was sublime. Let's enjoy his football while he’s in a blue shirt — I just hope he doesn’t do a Joleon on us.

That was the best team performance we’ve put in in years, and the best individual performance seen for us since Rooney coming from our big Belgian in midfield. Astonishing performance — that was not just top four form; if we could play like that every week, we’d be challenging for the title!

After the quite frankly pathetic performances under Moyes of late, these last few games have seen him approach games with the correct attitude (at last!) and even his staunchest critics have got to give him credit for finally getting his head out of his dour, defensive Scottish arse.

Wow, I think I have just witnessed the most complete midfield performance by Fellaini, he was simply magnificent.

The downside? Watch the vultures circling in the close season.

Brian it’s great to read what you say and that you are big enough to man up. But Lee i dont know how you can come on here and still give Moyes abuse, you are just embarrassing yourself.

Great performance.

Lads what you have to appreciate abourt certain posters on this site is that it will always be Moyes's fault. Even in an imperious win it only goes to show how shit he has been in the past.

Having said that, some of those negative fantasists are nowhere to be seen when we do win like this. You know who you are.

All we need is now is for Chris Perry and Sean McCathy to eat some humble pie now.

The pro-Moyes knee-jerk reaction to today's performance & result is just as bad as the anti-Moyes knee-jerk reactions we get when the team performs poorly & results aren’t so good. Anybody ever consider the possibility of giving credit where it’s due & criticism when it’s merited?

Of late, we’ve started to see how good this squad of players could be & every season we seem to get a glimpse of the potential Moyes has accumulated for the club through his astute acquisitions, but the real test will be whether it can be sustained. If it can (& if we’re lucky with injuries!) then Moyes could be leading us back to the heady days when we used to see silverware at Goodison Park not infrequently. We can only hope, eh?

Acolytes of the world unite! Awesome. Brilliant tactics by Moyes to keep Donovan out wide and put Pienaar in central midfield, with Cahill in his usual spot. Onwards and upwards, it’s great to be an acolyte tonight!

Fellaini magnificent. For those getting on Bilya’s back recently, it’s obvious from Fellaini’s performances that it can take some players a bit of time to adjust to the PL. All Moyes’s buys of the last few seasons are now looking the part.

Unashamedly acolyte.

Ian Tunstead;

If you had the ability to read, you’d look at my above post and realise I was actually applauding Moyes for his work recently!

Dennis Stevens;

"Anybody ever consider the possiblity of giving credit where it’s due & criticism when it’s merited?"

Spot on - absolutely spot on.

Stunning performance. Pienaar imperious as ever. Fellaini perhaps the best performance in a blue shirt in a long time. That guy has been sensational the last 2-3 months.

Guess my 5-0 Pienaar 1st scorecast wasn't as far away as the 3000-1 odds I got! COYB

Shoestring 2 Billionaire 0

OK, The Big Fella cost Mancini’s dress allowance, but good value today. There’s not much point in trying to make any sense tonight. The boys done good, played with pride, played them off the park.

OK, hard to stop. Do you think they will make an offer for all our players? Mancini seemed to be looking like a little boy thinking ’how do they do that?’

A very good day.

Perhaps a bit more depth of analysis tomorrow. Maybe not.

ps - I put the radio on about 2pm to hear 5Live’s Alan Green shouting at the referee, need I say, as a Kopite, again and again. I sent my complaint, as a license payer, through the website. I object to paying his wages as much as I do those of J Ross.

Back to our lads - I really, really hope this is just the start. The loss of two points at Arsenal gave us the hope that we could take anyone on. And we made a good start today.

Nil satis? COYB!

Lee Kidd ’’After the quite frankly pathetic performances under Moyes of late, these last few games have seen him approach games with the correct attitude (at last!) and even his staunchest critics have got to give him credit for finally getting his head out of his dour, defensive Scottish arse.’’

This seems like a bit of a dig to me and constitutes abuse in my eyes. It’s nothing to do with approaching the games with the correct attitude its about having as many of your best players available as possible or as many as we have had for some time.

I’ve been a fierce critic of Moyes for so long that I’m almost embarressed to join in the back slapping but I have to say that I can’t recall a more satifying victory for a long long time.

The reason for this is down to ESPN’s advertising campaign, which went along the lines of... "Who can stop Mancini's winning streak with the club where defeat is not an option as the City bandwagon arrives on Merseyside, where they take on Everton?"

Oh just how enjoyable was it to put that shower of shite firmly in their place?

Ian Moyes (sorry Tunstead)

Could you come down from your pulpit for one second and stop wagering a one-man crusade of anyone who you deem has slighted your hero and instead bask in the glory of a fine victory.

Thank you for describing me as a complete idiot as I was only half of one before and have been working on it.

I’m very happy to be proven wrong about Fellaini. How awesome was he tonight? What a great performance from the lads, and all that with Arteta and Jags yet to return! I nearly leapt out of my chair when the camera shot to them sitting together in the stands. :)

Ian:

Fact remains that when the likes of Leeds can have a pop at a "big" club by going for the throat and being successful doing it, then even an understrength Everton side should be showing more purpose against the bigger sides - perhaps we would have got a few more points this year if Moyes had his mindset right earlier this year.

Don’t get me wrong - an absolutely superb performance from the players and the manager tonight; but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be fickle and completely disregard all of Moyes’ shortcomings earlier this season.

Ian Tunstead, why you feel the need or justification to have a go at your so called doubters baffles me. I’ve not posted on here for a while but have kept up to date with the posts and comments and normally someone has said what I think by the time I’ve read through all the comments; however, this time I’m near getting in early, so here goes.....

You would probably class me as a doubter; for arguments sake I won’t disagree... what I will say is that I say it as I see it.

For A LOT of the 8 years or so Moyes has been at Everton, I believe the following to be true;

1) The squad has improved incredibly
2) Results have improved significantly
3) The football on show however, for the vast majority of time, has been appalling: hoofball, % football, strikers running into corners to chase the ball, midfield bypassed, etc... I could go on
4) Too many players have been bought and then played out of position for months or even years, resulting in consistently bad performances, loss of confidence and form until eventually being put in their correct best position (which was already known before we bought them) and then their performances improved. For evidence, please see, Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville, Yobo (he was played in midfield for Christ's sake) and now we have Fellaini.
5) Appaling use of substitutions
6) Negative tactics against inferior opposition AT GOODISON
7) No wins away against any of the big 4 and no wins EVER against Chelsea, furthermore shocking and indeed embarrasing displays against these teams for the most part, look what the mighty Leeds did at United a couple of weeks ago.... do you think our Davey watched it?????

FYI, we still have lots of injuries, we don’t have our best players back yet, nothing has really changed on that front. Still injured are Arteta, Jagielka, Osman, Anichebe, Hibbert, Rodwell with Yobo and Yakubu away in Africa. So why were we playing negative rubbish hoofball with the same players only a few weeks ago? How come we are now playing fabulous attacking, creative, flowing football where we haven’t for MOST of the last 8 years? Oh yes, all our players are back from injury...... NOT!!!

The difference is players are being played in their BEST positions AT LAST and someone has actually told them to play football NOT hoofball.

Tony Marsh has been saying for ages that this Everton team should be better than they are and hoofball does nothing but play into the oppositions hands. Neville in central midfield is a joke, he constantly gives the ball away, goes backwards or hoofs the ball into the corners. At right back, he is actually pretty good, but then Mr Moyes prefers Hibbert doesn’t he, and Pip MUST play, so it is central midfield isn’t it, oh yeh that means we can’t have two defensive midfielders so Rodwell can’t play and Fellaini has to play up front! Give me strength!

So what happenned, Rodwell, Hibbert, Osman injured!!!!! Neville then goes to right back (he has to play of course ALWAYS because Moyes loves him so much, he can’t play Seamus even though he is better going forward). Fellaini then can play in his PROPER position for the first time EVER in an Everton shirt, two genuine wingers in Donovan and Bily with Pienaar in central midfield (who can actually pass a ball, be positive and tackle without giveing fouls away) and suddenly the SAME players are a different team!!!

And you say it is because all our players are back from injury and Moyes was always right... Don’t make me laugh!

The injuries are still there, in fact you could argue they are worse than EVER!!! Playing players in their correct positions isn’t the hardest thing in the world to do, but Davey certainly thinks it is.

Having said all that, thank God SOME Evertonians gave Moyes hell for the crap football being served up and questionning whether it was time for Moyes to go or not. These Evertonians (Yes, including Mr Marsh) might actually have given Moyes the kick up the arse (AGAIN, see Tottenham at home a couple of years ago) and woke him up...

Then again, it could just be because of the injuries we had that Moyes was forced to play players in their correct positions at last, what is the truth?????? Who knows, but I don’t think Mr Moyes is the tactical genius you seem to believe he is. We’ll see, when all our players are back fit; if Neville goes back into central midfield, we will have our answer!!!!!

To the anit-Moyes brigade - I admire your flexibility in being able to choke down the words and say "well done David..." today. Jesus - I know we played well but we must have been near bloody perfect....

Well done Blues for putting City and the doubters in their place.

COYB!

Sorry, this post should have been on another thread, but Ian’s comments on this thread caused me to add it here too!

Excellent reply, Robbie Shields!!!

I am particularly pleased for Fellaini, who is going to be world class. After all the abuse that he has taken from a minority of our supporters on this website who clearly have never played football and couldn’t see what he brings to the team. Singling him out when the rest of the midfield around were anonymous. I have a fella who sits behind me who’d be waiting to get up and shout at him, often before the ball had even reached him.

Well in Felli lad!

Spot on, Robbie Shields.

Brendan O’Doherty, you beat me to it regarding Bily Dinov, the boy has talent, and he, like Fellaini, needs time to bed in: patience is rather scarce among football fans.

I could read off a list of lads who have joined the Blues, over my time watching Everton, and some very fine internationals, who started slowly. We saw a glimpse yesterday of what these players can produce, so let's hope they are allowed to fulfill their potential. And with the return of the long term injuries, the future looks good. COYB.

Great Response, Robbie.

I quite like Robbie’s response. To summarise:

"Results have improved significantly over the last eight years but we’re still crap"

"We need to play an untested 21-year-old kid ahead of a player who has won every honour in the game and who, when we he was out, was sorely missed."

"I was crap as a kid at football so I have to call players who have actually got to the summit of their profession shite."

"I think we should get Gary Megson in, or Kenny Daglish or even Mark Hughes because they must be better at substitutions and tactics than Moyes who may have built a good team but is still crap."

"I play football manager so I know where to play players and who to play."

"All players are robots so personality and character does not come into. You need to play the best players technically and not factor in the above."

"The opposition’s tactics have no bearing on the way we play."

My view: You don’t need money to get success... but it helps.

Ben, I was half decent as a kid actually.

Never said we were crap, just playing crap hoofball, you do remember that don’t you? Or are you one of those people who look at the score and invent the match performance around it?

Did play football manager 25 years ago but was crap at it, kept sticking to the Everton team and would not buy anyone else, kinda defeated the whole object really.

However, I did Manage my son's under-7s through to under-10s team and every week without fail was complimented by the opposing coach on how well my kids played together as a team, passing to each other, moving etc; very satisfying.

I’m sure you could have won medals playing for United... having said that, judging by your inventive mind, you probably think you have never said any of those things you quoted me as saying; expect a libel case in the post.

Money always helps, but look what the manager of Benfica managed to do in 6 months, spent very little and wiped the floor with us, it is possible you see, like the last two games have shown.

Robbie, you are talking bullshit mate, the net spending of Benfica in the last 2 seasons is €46.5m; ours is zero and you conveniently forget that, when we played Benfica we had 12 players, and from them at least 4 key players, injured or suspended.

Funny how when Man Utd had 4 first teamers missing they lost to Fulham and Leeds, isn’t it, or how our neighbors are struggling without Gerrard and Torres but that’s only excuses I guess.

Well said, Ben, I don’t know where these guys are coming from. Maybe it's me but it's quite obvious how Moyes has come about building this team. By gradually improving the playing staff.

You can quite clearly see the incremental changes each season. Each season, he gets in players to improve on what we had and then there is a bedding in period. Arteta, Pienaar and Fellaini are good examples. Moyes definitely doesn’t like putting new players straight into the team, he prefers a slow bedding in process, and will play these in different positions until they have had time to adjust to the team and their role.

However, sometimes we do have to sell one of our assets to move on to the next level. See Lescott and Rooney. So you are left with some disruption before the team settles down into a rythm again as we’ve seen in the last couple of games and last season.

Anyway lets not bicker and just enjoy this emphatic victory over City.

Robbie Savage and all those that agree with him, are you seriously suggesting that you know more about the modern professional game than David Moyes? If it was as easy as you suggest, you would have 20 teams in the top division all on maximum points.

David Moyes is dour, he admits that himself, but would you rather have someone with personality like Kevin Keegan and go gung-ho every week? On ESPN last night, Mr Keegan was made to look rather foolish with his comments and predictions.

I am sure that Moyes would rather play every player in his best position every game, with a squad the size of Everton’s that is hardly likely to happen. As Tim Cahill said on a season ticket reminder postcard "if the gaffer asked me to play left back, I would". Not that I want to see Cahill play left back, I like this attitude though. And that is what you get at Everton.

Performances like yesterday’s are the icing on the cake; yes, I want more cake and I have a feeling that David Moyes would deliver more to my door than Robbie Savage and Co.

Best performance since Spurs semi 95. Watching Fellaini and Pienaar dominate was approaching the "Holy Trinity". Only one game, I know, but we were bloody good.

I had a dream last night (bear with me): We’d just beaten Utd 1-0 in the upcoming Feb fixture and for some reason I was invited round to Rooney’s parents house (the Croxteth council one). Ferguson was there and trying to get Wayne out of bed. He wouldn’t budge, so I was asked to help. When I got into the tiny bedroom, Wayne told me he wasn’t moving until he could move back to Goodison. Then I woke up. Says it all really.

At last, square pegs in square holes and still our two most important players — Jagielka and Arteta — to return. Pienaar dominating midfield, Heitinga settling in his positional vocation, Bilyaletdinov finding his feet and given room to manoeuvre and Fellaini outstanding.

The opportunity to play a settled side for the last 10 matches has shown what David Moyes can obviously do (and has done consistently in his time here): this is the Everton we quite rightly expect.

Can’t remember Tevez getting a touch yesterday, never mind the likes of Da Jong (didn’t even realise he was playing until half way through the second half).

Now is the time to judge David Moyes, not back in October and November when more than half the team was missing, half the remnants had to be played out-of-position to field a decent XI and the newcomers were trying to settle in a side lacking consistency and confidence.

Yesterday was the way he wants Everton to play. Anyone who seriously thinks otherwise, and that Moyes somehow instructs his team to :

a) Continually hoof it
b) Play defensively at all times
c) Not press home an advantage and kill off a game
is:
d) Deluded.

Proud of my/our team yesterday and like I’ve said all along, I’ll be very interested to see what all those who called for Moyes’s head repeatedly just a couple of months ago will be saying at the end of what is turning into another very promising season under his stewardship.

Robbie the thing that defeats your whole argument is when you say ’’someone has actually told them to play football NOT hoofball’’. Are you seriously suggesting that, after 7 years in charge, Moyes suddenly changed his team talk to ’’right lads we are playing Man City today, I've decided I don’t want us to hoof the ball up today, I've been reading this post on ToffeeWeb by a guy called Tony Marsh and he talked about this thing called football, apparently you pass the ball to each other instead of hoofing it and said that it will get us results’’??? The most ridiculous thing I have read.

It's strange how we lost Pienaar to injury and performances got worse, Pienaar comes back and performances get better, then Vaughan and Neville return and one or two others and performaces improve yet again... what a coincidence.

Ian, I have to add to what you say by telling all those Moyes doubters that if you ever sit by the dugout or ask anyone that has MOYES IS CONSTANTLY BERATING THE PLAYERS FOR HOOFBALL, telling them to pass and move and push up the pitch.

IMO, it's got more to do with confidence and confidence has been growing since the second half at Hull and the return of Pienaar, as you say, but also lets not forget Donovan's impact as the first truly right-wing player we have had.

It seems clear to me that Moyes does want his teams to play football the right way & he deserves the plaudits when they do, it’s hardly a surprise that he’s criticised when they don’t. If he wanted to just out-muscle other teams & simply play it direct all the time then he would generally buy different players, but he mainly signs those who can actually play football & that’s all the evidence of his intent I need. I have faith in Moyes, but that doesn’t exempt him from criticism.

Ian, I’m pretty sure Bily complained a couple of weeks ago that he couldn’t understand why we kept hoofing the ball up the park when we had such good footballing players.

If DM was so against hoofball, why can’t I remember him ever coming out and saying that?

If you recall the days of Andy Johnson, are you seriously telling me it wasn’t a plan to ping the ball into the far corners for him to chase?

If Moyes had wanted to stop hoofball a long time ago he would have dragged the culprits off and told them exactly why they were subbed.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want rid of Moyes, as long as we are progressing and getting better then that’s fine by me. Long may it continue. I am exstatic about the last two games, I want it to continue, we’ll see what transpires.

I’m saying that, as a player under pressure from opposition closing me down, I would be tempted to hoof the ball up field if there was a big man who could win his fair share of headers or chip balls into the corner for AJ to chase, which I think players do as it is an easy option and takes pressure off the team.

As Jay has said Moyes berates the players for doing it. David Moyes doesn’t have to come out and explain every single decision to us but I have heard him say in interview a couple of times that he tells his players to try and pass the ball instead of hoofing it.

As someone else pointed out if you look at Moyes's singings, apart from Fellaini, they are all midget gems, so surely if Moyes wanted to play hoofball, wouldn't it be more sensible to be more like Stoke and just bring in tall players?

I’ve watched a good bit of Banega recently - absolute class. Does anyone seriously think we would have been interested in getting him if the plan was not to play proper football?

You play to your strengths. The better quality of player we get in, the better the quality of football. As in when we had Fernandes the first time. Watch the quality improve when Arteta returns...