Four more games in December, three of which are at home against Fulham, Southampton and Sunderland, there's a solid chance of us being top four by the turn of the year.

Exciting times. As always a lot will hinge on another good transfer window in January, but bloody hell at the moment if feels great to be a blue.

In the 'easy' games we'll be running into a massed defence most of the time!

Were in a very good position right now,
but in the next 7 matches there's bound to be ups and downs, that's football.

Every weekend from here to the New Year has a match with the top four facing each other, and Spurs / Southampton etc are dragged into it too.

Crucial we carry on as we are, get our heads down, get Goodison rocking and be totally ruthless over the next few games. If we do I think we'll be sitting in the Champions League places and then it's all in our hands.

Immensely proud of our team and manager - well done boys.

When we played Stoke and he dropped Ross and Mirallas, I had a go... What do I know? I'll never EVER doubt Roberto Martinez.

I defended his appointment to the hilt at the time of his arrival, as did I with Barry's and McCarthy's signings, and now a lot of people are eating humble pie and asking for afters!

I can't remember being this proud of our team, ever. The swagger and arrogance just makes my jaw drop and I search Martinez press conferences just to listen to him. A total footballing gent with class, dignity and above all else, immense knowledge of the game. No wonder the media have always loved him, how can you not?

Onwards and upwards, Blues.

That said, looking at the whole media I do think our season is being glossed over. But like I posted on the forum yesterday there's a lot going on for the media to get excited by. Arsenal are resurgent. Man Utd are on a downward spiral. Man City can't win away and Chelsea aren't the unstoppable force many thought Jose would instantly make them. I actually thought the analysis post-highlights on MotD was pretty good.

In one sense it's disappointing that we're not given much attention - but in another it might suit us. Less pressure on players and manager... although tbh I think Martinez could handle it.

Ray 943 MotD shows highlights of goal chances so will never reflect the overall play, it was a similar story in the Man Utd highlights. They made it pretty clear in the �analysis� that we had played extremely well and deserved at least a draw. Not that I�m a fan of MotD.

The way we passed the ball yesterday was just awesome, we totally outplayed them in the first half, yet it was a bit frustrating that we didn�t create any clearcut chances when we were so on top. It would have been incredibly harsh if we had come away with nothing.

I have no worries about the upcoming 7 matches, Martinez has them fired up and full of confidence. I can see us getting around 15 points from those seven games which will put us in a nice position for when we go to Anfield and give them a long overdue battering.

I have my images of him sitting in his arm chair with empty cabs of Tennants Super, all crushed amongst his feet whilst he Eff's and Jeff's "Fuck off you lot, you's didn't play like this for me!" And has a right go at his Mrs about class we look.

Haha the thought just makes me smile. The 6th of June this year was a turning point for Everton, one that was long overdue. The arrival of Martinez has woke up a sleeping giant of British footy!

With a bit more fine tuning in the final third (remember how dodgy we were when we were getting used to playing it from the back) then we will be scoring for fun. But, when it's all said and done, it's great being Blue; any neutral watching the game yesterday would have to sit up an take note that Everton are playing beautiful football and have a great manager.

More of the same, please, Everton, because my half-season ticket is on its way back and I'm really looking forward to the New Year.

We could do with some other players chipping in with goals as Lukaku is getting marked really tightly. The best way to loosen the marking is for Barkley and Osman to score a few. Its great to have fine build up play but we need to finish better. Its no wonder Liverpool held on to Suarez, if we had him we would be top of the league !!

Incidently, the media has always shown bias for Manchester and London clubs.

Premier League Giants Arsenal ( wait for it ) LEAP! to 5pts clear at the top of the table, now in days of yore this would mean they ( or who ever ) had thrashed somebody and gone from 2 pts clear to 5pts, in one, well yeah Leap.

The punchline that came after this 5pts clear Leap was not quite mumbled in a low voice, but it was a bit of a throw away...In 1-1 draw with Everton.

No wonder we get bitter, well some of us anyway

Earlier on the season we struggled to deal with high pressing from the likes of Palace and WBA. But I feel our defenders are more comfortable on the ball now and the midfielders move the ball more quickly. As a result the high pressing game may just play into our hands.

I watched the Fulham Villa game yesterday and the commentators noted that Fulham did not press high up the pitch and this made life difficult for Villa who are quick (and therefore good on the counter attack), but lack the guile to break down a massed defence.

Everton on the other hand can counter attack quickly against a high pressing team - and also have the guile to get round any parked bus (Barkley, Pienaar and Deulofeu)/ and/or a battering ram in Lukaku.

If we play as we have done the last 4 matches I don't think the lesser teams can live with us. Southampton will be an interesting one but they have now picked up a few injuries and they have not dealt with the so called big guns as well as we have.

There are exceptions - the Guardian is usually pretty balanced at Phil McNulty at the beeb seems not to be sky-four obsessed.

But I still think the lack of attention might be a good thing right now.

Something I'm loving right now and actually think is important, is knowing that there is a whole army of young/younger blues getting a taste of what it's like to support a confident/cocky/fearles Everton side who are playing Everton-style football.

Another thing that really encouraged me recently.

After the excitement/adrenalin of the derby, I thought there was a good chance the Stoke game could be a let down.

Why?

Conditioning I suppose (it's my Pavlov's blue response).

What I mean is in the past, after getting us all worked up by a great performance, we have often (immediately after) been let down by a performance (against a load of cack) lacking ideas/clue/effort etc.

Not so against Stoke, we did exactly what most of us would expect us to do to Stoke at home - paste them.

Some of our football yesterday was truly fantastic and our attitude even better.

Ok, we're not going to with the Champions League but we shouldn't underestimate ourselves either.

We've beaten The Champions on their own ground, drawn away at the league leaders away, beaten Chelsea and got draws against other sides who have outspent us massively.

(nb: and after some of these draws, we've been gutted knowing would could/should have won).

RM and the players have set (themselves) a high standard but seem really up for it rather than scared of it.

I think most blues appreciate that with our (lack of) finances, the chances of a PL title are virtually non-existent, but (as we now see) there's nothing preventing the team/club/manager buying into the idea of 'fortune favours the brave' and giving us a few thrills along the way.

As for being ignored by 'the meeja', I actually like us being under the radar at the moment - the less distraction the better imo.

All we need to concern ourselves with right now is...Fulham.

These 'experts' didn't seem to understand what the man was trying to achieve, when it was clear to many ordinary fans on here what the problem was for years - we couldn't keep the fecking ball, and we invited pressure at these bigger grounds.

Now they are all singing his praises a few weeks later for keeping the ball, and passing out of defence instead twatting it.

They probably think nobody remembers the drivel they were spouting a month ago.

Sharp was Martinez's biggest critic by the way, clearly the old Jocks club looking out for each other there - Prick.

The worst culprits are the ones where dysfunctioning families are dragged onto tv to have shouting matches. Er... but getting slightly off topic here...

Why?

Conditioning I suppose (it's my Pavlov's blue response)"

You have been reading my mind again Mr Ruane.

It's nice now that I no longer fear going into games against anyone.

That is the first time for an extremely long time that II have ever seen us outArsenal Arsenal...

Funny but for many seasons I thought McNulty was a redshite the way he wrote about hem but the other week someone told me he's one of us?

Martinez has shown us all what I have said for years: Moyes was holding us back. Moyes had brainwashed many of the younger generation of fans into thinking we were a small-time outfit lucky to be in the Premier League and lucky to have him. I am of the belief that Everton are one of the biggest clubs in the country and always have been. We were led up the the garden path by Moyes, he corrupted our way of thinking. Everything Moyes was at Everton he took to Manchester with him. Only trouble now is he is under intense pressure to perform and win every game.

Roberto Martinez, with very little fuss, has restored EFC back to were we belong. I used to scream at Everton fans who accepted mediocrity as the norm... What we have now is what it should be like. No matter how Moyes tried to put it across, we are not a Stoke City, a WBA, or a Bolton; we are not a Newcastle, a Sunderland, or a Man City. We never yo-yoed through the leagues. It's over 50 years since a relegation. Historically, we are a giant of English football and Martinez acknowledges this and embraces it.

Things are on the up at the club. We are a joy to watch and other clubs will now fear us instead of the other way around. Moyes is a distant memory and Sin Miedo reigns supreme.

They're a Grand Old Team.....

Great performance by the Blues. Proud of the football we're playing at the minute. Fuck them all Everton, just keep on proving them wrong.

I was at De La Salle with Phil McNulty. As I recall he was a blue (and wanted to be a journalist from a young age).

On a separate point, has anyone noticed that Roberto's football philsophy is very similar to Sir Dave Bailsford's approach to cycling, i.e. a focus on preparation and performance as the long term route to success, while accepting that in sport the occasionally glitch (e.g. dodgy penalty, wicked deflection, puncture, collision) will cause you to lose occasionally. Will the January transfer window produce some more 'incremental gains'? - lets hope so.

...Oviedo now seems a defender as well as good going forward. Jags and Distin seem more comfortable on the ball, and Jags playing it on the ground; Howard throwing ball to feet etc, etc.

They seem to like this format and I can understand why they don't want to show the same clips repeatedly, especially if there is no actual end product or controversy about them.

The comments also made it clear how well we had performed, so I am surprised that people are seeing an extreme bias in what was shown on the BBC last night. Maybe it is because I do not generally set much store on information gathered from only one source that I can't really see what the furore is about.

For the record, I much prefer what Sky used to call 'Football First' as 50 minutes of highlights from any game can pretty much be relied on to give a true account.

Irrespective of MoTD, Sky etc, our manager's approach as no gone unnoticed by other discerning footie fans. Neither has the progress of young Ross (I work with a couple of Chelsea fans who would like their club to buy him now).

So I think in our next 5/6 games we will see sides coming to Goodison with a view of 1 up and 10 behind the ball, which makes it a little harder and may require a fair bit of patience from the fans.

To be fair to them, they were lavish in their praise of our performance, and also gave the possession figures.
I think we have to appreciate that ManU, ManC, Chelsea, Arsenal and dare I say RS have more neutral supporters than we have at this time, their main focus is on viewing figures.
With our new manager at the helm, all we need now is some substantial backing from the clubs hierarchy and we can scale the heights once more.

PS. It does show though how misleading highlights programmes can be and that applies to every game we watch.

Don't necessarily agree - yet - that this is better than 1970 or 1985. But Christ isn't it great to even be thinking in such terms again?

Third agreement here, for me amazing football on display yesterday, a truly wonderful sight,

Tony, spot on about Moyes's 'small club' mentality and 'we are lucky to be here'... It was true when he first took over, but I believe he held us back and was too negative in his approach.

Thankfully he's taken his small club mentality to Manure.

I was in agreement with you when you called for Mirallas to be played closer to Lukaku in your match report a couple of weeks ago, but I�m having my doubts, I just don�t feel he is doing enough.

Lukaku didnt have his best game last night but his movement was relentless, every time we gained possession he was off, across ths back four, coming short, offering the run for one over the top . . .he got through a prodigious amount of work. Mirallas on the other hand didn�t.

It seems harsh to complain after such a fine team performance, but it seemed ( to me at least ) that Mirallas was either unable or not prepared to match the energy levels of everyone else. everyone around me was screaming for Del boy to replace him.

I�m a big fan of KM�s but I have this feeling that he may think he has already "made it", Would love him to prove me wrong over the next few weeks

Arsenal 1
Chelsea 3
City 0
Liverpool 1, Tottenham 1, Man Utd 3, Newcastle 3 and Aston Villa 3. Champions League form without a doubt!