Everton Thoughts

Well, it was always going to happen- Roberto Mancini has lost his first game in charge of Manchester City. What was not a certainty however was the abject nature of the loss. Whilst perhaps not as spineless as the Tottenham performance that ultimately cost Hughes his job, it was not far off.

It all got off to a bad start when Santa Cruz had to come off after 5 minutes, to be replaced by Robinho. This pushed Tevez into the main striker role, as opposed to supporting a player like Benjani or Adebayor.

All the players that had earned such praise in the last few weeks managed to give performances that were shadows of what they are capable off. The promising midfield duo of De Jong and Barry were particularly poor, both were comprehensively outplayed in the center of the park by an admittedly superior Everton side. Bellamy worked hard as always, but ultimately failed to contribute, and for all his huffing and puffing since the departure about Hughes about almost expecting a position in the side week in week out, was almost as ineffective as Robinho.

The two goals conceded were both from set pieces, the first from a free kick, given away by contender for clumsiest defender of the year, Zabaleta, and the second a silly penalty given away by Micah Richards.

As disappointing as the whole performance was, lets not get carried away. This defeat was only the third of the term, equal best with Chelsea, and came on a weekend where Liverpool and Tottenham both drew in games they would probably be expected to win, and at the time of writting, Aston Villa are also drawing at West Ham. What is more important is that Mancini learns about his squad in advance of the important semi final on Tuesday.