O'Byrne says "it was a freak injury that in another 100 years of medicine we may never see again."
O'Byrne said Saturday that Duffy's life was no longer in danger.
Duffy is not in Everton's first team but had been scheduled to train with the Ireland squad ahead of next week's friendlies against Paraguay and Algeria."
More information as the news develops.
- The Toffees are trying to wrap up Tim Cahill to a four-year extension before the World Cup. That's smart by Everton. If Cahill impresses even more at the World Cup, the Toffees would have more trouble in wrapping him up.
Of the season that is. I’m talking about the end because next week’s match doesn’t really matter. We are already out of contention for a spot in the Europa League, and we can’t move up or down from 8th place in the Premier League. So you can’t really blame me for looking ahead. But I’ll write a season recap post and a post looking forward to the future next week after the season is officially over.
The last couple of weeks of the Prem League have been a little less exciting than other leagues. This is only because the three teams relegated from the Prem are already written in stone (Hull City, Burnley, and Portsmouth). Newcastle and West Brom are going to be back in the Prem with a playoff deciding the third spot (it’s between Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City, Leicester City, and Blackpool). The top of the league is a little more exciting. Chelsea is in first while Man U. is one point behind for the league title. Tottenham is in 4th place with a spot for Champions League qualifying, but Manchester City is only a point behind with two games to play for both of them (they play each other on Wednesday).
Now back to Everton news:
- Phil Neville is enthusiastic for next season, even if we don’t bring anyone else into the club.
“Eighth position feels like a bit of a failure. I honestly can’t believe we’re there, but you get what you deserve in the league, and the poor first half of the season has cost us dearly.”
“If we were a club on the slide that wasn’t signing players or producing young players maybe you would worry, but at the moment the way we’re playing football and how we’ve improved shows we’re moving forward.”
“It doesn’t bother me if we don’t bring anyone in because we’ve got a strong squad."
That’s a lot of confidence in our current team. I like this a lot, but injuries have always been the most important factor in Everton’s failure and we need to make sure we have capable backups like the elite teams.
- Looks like we are favorites to sign Jermaine Beckford (free transfer) according to this article.
- This news was out a couple of days ago but I forgot to post it. Everton is going to tour Australia in July facing a few A-League sides. Details are on this site.
Interesting article by Guardian.co.uk. Supposedly, Mikel Arteta knew Morten Gamst Pedersen might make some hasty tackles. That combined with the fact that Arteta has had quite a bit of injury problems recently (groin tear recently and knee ligament damage for most of last season) resulted in his angry eye poking reaction.
“I probably shouldn't have reacted like I did but there have been a few times – not just in this match – when he's made bad tackles," said the Spaniard. "I don't mind it when they're fair or tough, I accept it with no problem. But with him it's different and he knows that – I told him after it as well.”
Arteta did apologize, even though he made it seem that Pedersen had it coming.
"But I made a mistake, I shouldn't have reacted and I apologise for it. I probably got more upset because I was out for so long and don't want a stupid challenge like that injuring me again."
I don’t mind that Arteta keeps tabs on players that could hurt him or tackle aggressively, but he really needs to keep his cool. Everton can’t afford to lose him, especially with the impact he has had while playing. David Moyes has talked to him, and I doubt that Arteta will react like that again. He is usually level headed and that reaction seemed to be an anomaly.
Liverpool’s win over West Ham puts them five points ahead of us and really gives us no room for error. There are only three matches left in the season and we may need some outside help for Europe to be possible at this point.
Cahill’s 90th minute strike keeps Everton in the hunt for Europe. Everton dominated possession all match, but Tim Howard and the defense struggled immensely on set pieces. The scoring started early, with a converted penalty in the 4th minute, after Mikel Arteta was clearly fouled in the box by Ryan Nelson. From there on Everton dominated most of the half, but never created any good opportunities to go up two. In the 20th minute, Arteta lucked out by only picking up a yellow card after poking Morten Pedersen in the eye. Blackburn slowly started picking up their attack after this incident. Most of their chances were created during set pieces, where Everton’s fullbacks and Tim Howard looked lost. Everton were lucky to go into the half unscathed.
The second half began with some more pressure by Blackburn, and they finally equalized with a phenomenal strike by Steven Nzonzi. The Toffees attack started to seem feeble, and Moyes made two changes, the second one being Yakubu for Tony Hibbert. This move proved to be the difference. Within 20 seconds of coming in, Yakubu found the back of the net. This was done after a long throw by Baines was headed toward Yakubu by Victor Anichebe. Yakubu headed the ball in with a defender falling into him. Two minutes later, on a counter-attack by Blackburn, Jason Roberts powered a strong shot following a through ball to equalize again. This match started to look tantalizingly similar to the last two matches played by Everton. Cahill had something to say about a draw though. Cahill, on a recent scoring tear, tapped in a short cross after Yakubu made some astonishing moves on the left side of the box to bring out the goalie. This 90th minute goal kept the dream of Europe alive and puts the Toffees within striking distance of Aston Villa and Liverpool.
The addition of Arteta and Yakubu made an immense difference in the play of Everton. Arteta held possession for Everton (63% for Everton compared to 37% for Blackburn) and changed the dynamic of the game for Everton. Yakubu created goal chances, something Everton lacked in the first half. Cahill also continued his goal scoring streak by putting another one in the net after scoring two against Villa. This victory was essential in Everton’s hopes to get to Europe and shows how important Arteta is to the team. As long as our team stay healthy, we should have quite a good chance to finish at least in the top 7 and hopefully make it to the Europa League (given Portsmouth is still denied).
Next week Everton plays Fulham at Goodison Park. If Everton wants any chance of making it to Europe, a victory would be very wise.
Everton continued its disappointing three game stretch of draws, the last two of which it blew leads late. This time, it was against an Aston Villa side that equalized in injury time by an own goal from Phil Jagielka. After beating Manchester City 2-0 away on March 24th, Everton seemed within striking distance of the top 7 and a Europa League berth (given that Portsmouth is refused a berth). The Toffees are currently in 8th in the Premier League, 4 points behind Aston Villa and 5 points behind Liverpool (Villa have a game in hand). While the Aston Villa-Everton match started off with equal opportunities for both sides, Tim Howard had to be called to action with a couple of quick reflex saves. Tim Cahill scored his 8th goal of the season in the 23rd minute with, what else, a header following a corner. Agbonlahor equalized for Villa in the 72nd minute just to be outdone by Tim Cahill two minutes later with another free header following a corner. Everton lost the lead again in injury time with a Jagielka own goal. Ashley Young crossed into the box from left-center and Jagielka, trying to head the ball out, deflected the ball into his own net.
This was another disappointing result for the Toffees. Though I can’t be too disappointed in coming away with a point from Villa Park, I feel we deserved more. It seems we have reverted back to the ways of mental and defensive mistakes that had struck earlier in the season. The main problem seemed to be tiredness and a lack of possession towards the end of the game. While I won’t completely pin the blame on Jagielka for heading the ball into our net, I will blame the lack of pressure given by our midfielders and forwards to players crossing in balls towards the end of the game. This occurred during both goals but was more important in the second, due to the fact that Young got free vision to place his cross right in front of goal. The first goal was a good play by Agbonlahor, but I couldn’t help realize that our defenders were all out of place during his header. I remember these same problems during the beginning of the season where The Toffees would play excellent soccer for 75 minutes and collapse for 15 minutes in the middle of the second half and give up a flurry of goals. The main reason behind these collapses earlier in the season was a chemistry problem between the defenders because of all the injuries we had. The last couple of drawn games seem to stem more from a void in midfield, particularly the loss of Arteta and Fellaini. While Pienaar, Osman, and Cahill are all playing great, they all are attacking midfielders who create offensively in order to score. Heitinga was playing well in the defensive midfielders role until his injury. Rodwell played great, but he did not do what we seriously needed. He couldn’t keep possession on Everton’s side and slow down the game after going ahead. Instead we lost possession after forcing attack. Arteta would take his time to find the right opportunity to attack and until then would keep possession. This is what we are lacking late in games and we might have even held on to a victory if not for the Heitinga injury. Someone really needed to step up to be the pivot in the midfield. None of the midfielders took on this responsibility and Everton ended up with only a point. Arteta should be coming back from injury soon, but until then Moyes needs to find a player that is willing to control a game like Arteta has done in the past. If that doesn’t happen soon, Europa League qualification will slowly slip from our grasps.
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