Everton 0-1 Chelsea

Another not so pretty match. Made easier for us by Beattie strangely headbutting Gallas twice from behind when he was chasing after a long ball and Gallas slowed down in front of him, although the ball was a long way away. Clearly a red card offence, and Riley obliged, but incredibly both Moyes and Beattie later claimed that it was not intentional, the former despite having watched the video. Moyes even accused Gallas of "going down too easily", as though it were possible to pretend that someone had headbutted you from behind if you weren't even aware they were behind you.

It looked to be going the way of the Man City game, the shameful pitch not helping. Lack of striking power painfully evident. Did not miss Robben so much as Drogba, though Eidur significantly improved on his previous few appearances, and was rewarded with a tap in from a Ferreira cross that was deflected onto the crossbar before falling in his path. Even Eidur couldn't possibly miss from there.

Last 15 minutes was abysmal. For some reason the game plan seemed to be completely defensive, with Everton having a seemingly endless string of freekicks in danger areas although before that we'd had 70% possession for 70 minutes. But the incredible defence, well on its way to breaking more records (Cech had already broken Schmeichel's record for longest period for a single goalkeeper not to concede), held up.

Manchester derby tomorrow, so probable dropping of points for our closest rivals.

The decline of 'Pool is hilarious. After rejoicing at the "Bluenoses"' loss, they proceeded to be utterly dominated by Brum, eventually losing 0-2, which makes it a double for Brum over that "great" team.

Update: Moyes retracts his defence of Beattie. As an aside, I remember an occasion when Duncan Ferguson got sent off for an obviously deliberate elbow, and after the match Moyes made no attempt to defend his player, merely shrugging and saying "it was a red card". Amusing contrast to the latest incident.