He needed to Ian because he was pretty much invisible on Saturday.

Hear, hear.

Osman is an excellent footballer, albeit one who has occasionally seemed lightweight against the big guys. He has become more of a battler of late and is getting deserved plaudits.

A great performance from Osman tonight.

For me he was the best player after Saha. I do wish he could perform like that more often though.

Ian, I’m probably one of Osman’s critic’s to be honest. Though I did praise him for his performance at the Emirates where he gave a good first half display but again tonight it was a similar picture. However, as I pointed out then, when he has to put such an effort to raise his game he lacks the stamina to do it for 90 minutes and his performance fades. Equally, he can play well on occasions, but only when the opposition afford him the time and space. I think Chelsea did that tonight which was uncharacteristic of them. Sadly performances such as tonights are few and far between. I’m afraid tonight’s performance doesn’t alter that fact for me.

As one of Leons leading critics I offer him sincere praise on tonights game.
I would like to be able to praise him more often.
In fact I congratulate the whole team for a job well done.

Yes I agree..Leon stood out with his tackling and distribution...he does tend to fade and his stamina is a problem...but, he is a very important cog in the wheel and an excellent squad member..Arteta also showed glimpses of form but he still needs match play...overall an excellent ’team’ performance and it is difficult to single out any motm...so many played really well.....its just such a pity that we did not do it against Liverpool.
If we can keep up form like this we will go very close to Europe qualification again....its a shame that we had such a poor start.

Osman played well, Saha was superb (Despite the penalty miss)... but Donovan was MotM.

He is turning into the most effective wide player we’ve had for a long time... in this form I’d rate him very highly. Almost every time he gets the ball he looks dangerous

I just hope we can get him permanently; with him Pienaar, Arteta, Screech and Rodwell we’ve the potential for a very balanced and attacking midfield.

Kevin, Ditto

Donovan MotM and against the best left back in the world, pity he’s going back next month cos he looks like he’s enjoying it here. There some grudging praise for Ossie on the site, c’mon gents he put a shift in against the strongest midfield in the Prem and came out tops.

But everyone played out of their skins

definitely thought Saha was brilliant, clearly Man of the Match. And I would’ve rated him that even if he didn’t score. He presented well, held up the ball, chested, controlled, took so many long balls and made a play out of it... true centre forward quality.

A close second on equal footing were Cahill, his work rate is underrated, seriously he presented and got back a lot, Osman for his tenacity, and for me not Donovan who was pretty good, but Johnny Heitinga. Most underrated full back in the league.

Phil Neville was at fault for the goal and at least two clear-cut Chelsea chances, although he redeemed himself well with some timely interceptions, but he is a worry in that spot.... D.

A follow up to the reply by Paul Foster on another mailbag post concerning "Hoofball". (Edited):

Just one gripe: Michael, what’s with your match report? Referring to a perfectly delivered assist as "hoofball".

Here is what I saw:

A ball played long (hoofball) which evaded the supposedly current best English centre half in the Premier League. The ball then controlled impeccably by Saha resulting in an exquisite finsih.

Counter this with the description of Chelsea"s goal - "Route One". A ball knocked forward from the back line, flicked on with a resulting goal.

Is "Route One" any different to "Hoofball"? IMO it is not. Back line straight to front line is the same. Please be consistent. Use the same terminology, one or the other. We "Hoofed it" they played "Route One"

As for the team tonight I applaud each and every player - and the manager. Chelsea afforded us the luxury of allowing us to play. Play we did as so too did Chelsea. Ray Wilkins was contrite enough to acknowledge the fact we deserved to win - there are not too many in the upper echelons of the PL that would admit to that fact. My MOTM?

Donovan without a doubt. He was impressive throughout. He attacked, defended and was a thorn to Chelsea all game. He took the sublime corner that led to our first goal (take note Arteta), was fouled for the missed penalty but overall put in a very impressive shift.

In the last fifteen minutes the defence came to the fore. I had been informed inadvertently (I was at work when the game was on Setanta and had recorded to watch later ) that WE had won by a physician from Italy. I was distraught. "No, no,no" I shouted down the phone. "I was looking forward to watching it!"

He was apologetic, after all he didn’t know my craving for a Blue success. I do have to say though, he saved me from a heart attack during that last long 15 minutes..

Great result. Bring on UTD!

Couple of double takes to check it WAS Osman ... the boy done well!

Really glad to see the supporters get such a reward after Saturday. Even gladder to see Heitinga in "They shall not pass" mood. It could be one hell of a partnership with Jagielka.

I was made up by Ossie’s performance and the praise he’s getting is well deserved, I just wish he’d put that performance into the FA Cup final... and we’d have had Landon for that game as well! The Prem’s "best midfield" and the "world’s best left back" were made to look ordinary... -ish.

Can anyone tell me how Bily played??

Watched sporadicaly on iraqgoals [bastards!] so didn’t see much, but one thing that struck me was the atmosphere at Goodison: it appeared almost Turkish like in it’s intensity.
Fantastic result although recent performances (the Shite aside)] said it was coming... I didn’t expect it to happen without Fellaini & Pienaar though.

Billy, while not setting the world on fire, had one of his better nights.

As for Osman, let's hope this is a catalyst for his future displays against the top teams. He played really well tonight after an invisible first 15 /20 minutes.

He showed me, one of his biggest critics, that there is some fire in his belly and that he is able to compete at a higher level. Now all he needs to do is do it for 30+games per season.

Well done Blues,, bring on Utd, a win against them and also against a fading Spurs will be 9 points from the month of death.

If only... If Only!!

A great performance after a very poor opening 20 minutes when it looked like "Here we go again..." Arteta needed the game and Billy flashed in and out but the other players were superb.

We must do everything we can to keep Donovan, classy, intelligent, pacy, something we have been sadly lacking for some time. Even if we can't keep him after March, we must pay the £3 or £4M that he will cost after the World Cup.

Ossie had a fine game, he was being called Ossie Makelele by a few people round me for his tackling. Best game Distin has played, Baines tackled well, Cahill worked his socks off and Saha was looking like himself again.

Thought Senderos was magnificent in the 30 seconds he came on for, and where on earth did Wiley find 5 minutes from when the trainer didn't come on and there was no time wasting? 3 mins at the most for the subs.

Just arrived back in Dublin from a memorable night. Congrats to all, brilliant display of skill and passion.

One thought prevails, however: how do we keep Donovan at Goodison?Every time he got on the ball you expected something. He is sheer class and has brought a new dimension to our play; a threat from our right hand side.

It seems amazing that he could be back in LA in a couple of weeks. Whatever it takes to keep him, just do it.

To be honest Steve, most of them were invisible for the first 15/20 minutes.

Bilyaletdinov is a bit of a enigma to me at the moment, he has the skill to take men on but seems scared at the moment to try and he seems to lag back a little and let Baines go to the line. Corners are disappointing again.

One thing, Donovan, one corner - one goal, we will soon knock that out of him, doesn’t he know he is supposed to hit the first man everytime?

The American Manager must've been been laughing in his Budweiser watching Donovan destroy Ashley Cole and seeing how bad Terry was. Doesn't bode well for our World Cup chances if they are our so-called best defenders.

Osman is certainly not an ’excellent footballer’ by any stretch of an uniformed imagination..

He is an average footballer who occassionally (once or twice a season if we’re lucky) puts in a world beating performance... Last night was one of those performances — the guy was everywhere, superb covering, great vision, passing and dribbling — He had it all...

So, well done Leon; superb performance. I guess this is why he’s so frustrating a player — one munite he’s Maradona... the next he’s Madonna!

Also, well played to Donovan and Saha... Saha was starting to get a bit of grief so I’m glad he ended that.

And well done to Moyes — avoided the Cahill/Osman/ Neville midfield conundrum and was brave using Mikel from the start...

Again, we showed that we can play football when we want to.

I’d agree with most of the plaudits here but would suggest Distin’s performance has gone unmentioned. Hetinga was superb, but Distin wasn’t far behind.

Well done to the whole team last night.

I am still buzzing from the perfrormance. I know we would struggle to play like that every match, however, from the Derby performance to that, well, it just makes me wonder sometimes.

Interesting to see people's differing opinions on MOTM, which confirms how well the team played as a whole.

An uplifting night for all Everton fans, which was certainly needed after the weekend.

Oh and I agree, although these words are futile — WE MUST SIGN DONOVAN.

Seemed like Osman had a fine game and saw on MotD his superb chance creating ball winning. For me, the best Everton player this season has been Leighton Baines. He is the one player on the team we could not replace.

James Elworthy, I get your point, but I couldn't give less of a fuck about the national side if I tried.......

I can no longer support any team that has Steve ’tiny forehead’ Gerrard in the side.

Ciaran. Substitute Osman and read Everton.
Simillarities?

Osman deserves the praise for last night, I though he was excellent along with several others, Saha, Cahill & Donovan especially.

Great result, great effort.

Gary Sedgwick’s post above is very interesting concerning ’route 1’ and ’hoofball’. Perhaps some kind of a definition is required, maybe best coming from Michael!

It can be very subjective obviously but for me Saha’s second last night was most definitely not the result of hoofball. Distin’s pass was measured (he looked up and spotted Saha) and the pass was accurate and well received by the forward.

Long passes are not hoofball, hoofball is hit and hope stuff with no particular objective in mind other than getting the ball to the other end of the pitch. Otherwise we would have to say that David Beckham only plays hoofball. You can usually tell when hoofball is coming, a player is devoid of ideas or there is no movement in front of him, nobody in space.

Before the change in the rule regarding passes back to the goalkeeper, this is when that usually occurred. (Mark Lawrenson...and the shite generally were famous for it in those days!) Or sometimes hoofball can be a way of relieving pressure on a defence. Either way, playing the ball long is not necessarily hoofball if we consider hoofball to mean shite as I think most of us do.

Route 1 is a better term to use in last night’s context but even that sounds far more condescending than Distin’s long and accurate pass and Saha’s brilliant goal actually deserve!

It is interesting that we won with Osman, Neville and Howard who have been denounced on TW recently as the worst palyers in the Premier League. Funny old game.

I thought that Wilkins’s comments after the game were generous and mature, in sharp contrast with other managers, especially FSW, after defeat.

Not really Brian...

I think the team we’ve got has far more potential than having a couple of great games a season...

If you’re saying Osman is the personification of the current level of this team - then I think you’re simply wrong....

Tom... Totally agree, I thought Wilkins's comments were very genous and unassuming. Hats off to the guy when you consider some of the other comments from said managers inclusing the FSW last night going on about a penalty. I thought it was a nice touch from him when he said that their title rivals still have to come to Goodison also.

Drogba (who I though was awsome last night) was also very complimentary about how difficult it is to go to Goodison.

Nice to see.

I would just like to say congratulations to everybody. The team, the staff and the fans.

I think that Leon Osman is a terrific footballer and I love watching him play.

I hope that we sign Donovan. He brings a whole new aspect to our attacking play. Really enjoyed the game. Well done everyone!

The only hoofballs I saw last night were the welcome ones in the final few minutes!

Saha and Heitnga were fantastic but all did their bit!

Osman was excellent, the highlight of his performance was his tackle and pass to release Donovan for the penalty. He gets a lot of stick but if he has limitations as a Premier League player they are not his attitude or work-rate, more about his lack of physical power.

Donovan has that rare thing in the Premier League these days, he will try to take on a man and has the genuine pace to do it. His legs look like Billy Whizz when he sprints! He too has his limitations but should be applauded for the impact he’s had — it’s been a while since we’ve had a player on the wing with genuine pace and it makes a massive difference. Just ask Carvalho.

I thought at half-time the game was too much end-to-end, like a basketball game, and we were missing a stopper in Centre-mid. I thought we were going to lose if we spent 45 minutes counter-attacking their counter attacks but I was wrong, we outplayed them and exposed their frailties at the back and not just from set pieces either.

Moyes deserves praise for finally having the balls to not play 10 at the back against a Sky 4 team, as he also did at the Emirates. Hopefully he has learnt that you HAVE to have a go at them rather than playing for a battling draw.

Route 1 - it leads to a goal.
Hoofball - it doesn’t.

After watching the game online, I looked at the live feed on here and couldn’t believe there was someone slagging off Osman on there.

It said something like the team is playing well apart from ’Neville, Bily and Osman who are shit’

I agree that Neville was at fault for the goal (he went to challenge Drogba in the air, realised he wasn’t gonna make it, then saw Malouda running in behind him. And Bily looked really low on confidence.

But Osman was being a little terrier in the middle of the pitch, closing down and covering for Mikel when Mikel went further up pitch.

I stand by what I’ve always said, Osman is a very capable centre midfielder. Not brilliant, but nothing like the frustrating player he is in a wide position.

I think he’s been good since he got back and filled the gap, giving us a more ’creative’ midfielder in there in the absence of Mikel Arteta. Someone who takes that extra touch in midfield and looks to knit things together.

Special mention to Arteta as well, who also put in a good, disiplined performance infront of the back four. I like Osman, but Mikel’s the main man, he just oozes composure and our players know they can give his the ball under pressure, which cuts out a lot of hoofball.

Osman may have been a capable midfielder against Chelsea but for every other game he is incapable. I for one thought we had seen the back of him after Wembley but for some reason Moyes sticks with his awful performances. He is never subbed or dropped and nothing other than a five-a -side player whose true level is a couple of leagues down.

I thought Leon Osman was superb against Chelsea. I have watched games where Tony Hibbert has been excellent. They get a fair share of stick and it set me thinking of Everton players who haven't had the credit they deserve.

There have been plenty of dark days at Everton but even during those times we have had decent players who deserve to be remembered. Here's my list:

Derek Mountfield
Martin Dobson
John Hurst
George Telfer
Billy Wright
Joe-Max Moore