14 heroes, not just 1

Cracking atmosphere
By Chris Kirwan
October 21 2002

One player made all of the headlines after Saturday’s victory that brought an end to Arsenal’s incredible run, but in reality there were 14 heroes out there for the Blues.

The likes of Hibbert, Unsworth, and even Linderoth when he replaced Li Tie worked their socks off against the best side in the country, and were rewarded with an incredible victory.Arsenal didn’t play to their full potential, but that was down to the hard work of every single Everton player. Radzinski produced another superb performance and was rewarded with a well-deserved goal; Yobo was inspirational at the back and has provided Moyes with some much-needed pace in the backline; and Gravesen worked hard throughout, forcing Seaman into making an excellent save, and never giving Arsenal’s central midfielders any time on the ball.

Inevitably the papers are full of Rooney, and his individual effort in the last minute provided us Blues with one of our first incredible moments for years. But it was the team effort that put Rooney in the position to make the headlines. We are witnessing Moyes moulding a good solid team out of players playing to their full potential every week. The likes of Carsley and Pembridge may not be the most gifted players, but Saturday showed that they are not fearful of the likes of Ljunberg, Vieira, and Gilberto.

Arsenal had periods of the game when they created a few chances, as you’d expect from a side of their quality, but at no stage were the Blues dominated. It was refreshing to see the Blues get the rub of the green on Saturday. Ljunberg was extremely close to putting Arsenal 2-1 up late on, and we could easily have been reflecting on the Blues being undone by another late goal. But instead we are filled with optimism, and it’s the Blues that are talk of the country. And Rooney provided Blues everywhere the opportunity to get extremely drunk celebrating, something he still has to do with a bottle of White Lightening on a park bench. Oh, and Blue Square have us at 500/1 for the title.