Off the back off a veritable roller-coaster of a game (intended) we have an in form Bolton coming to Goodison on Wednesday, which is a mid week novelty match this season since were not in Europe and [Poor language removed] ourselves in the Carling Cup.
Blackpool was a weird one with pros and cons, many of which have been bashed to death in the match thread so we'll surmise that its an opportunity missed. For all their gung-ho approach you'd consider that Bolton will provide a stiffer test than the Tangerines.
Fresh from a deserved 4-2 home victory over Spurs they won't be short of confidence either. Coyle has assembled a decent tidy side in under a year there, who can play a bit too and don't have too many gaping weaknesses. It's all well and good looking at the contrasting starting elevens and seeing we have the better players but that needs to manifest itself into a team that, well, wins games.
If Blackpool was the Las Vegas of Lancashire then Bolton is the Mogadishu of the same county with all the trimmings. You can expect lots of poorly inked tattoos, male ear rings and minty trabs with the laces too tight and big tied bows. Piss poor stereotyping aside, they're onto a good thing while they have Coyle in charge and will provide no easy game for anyone. Although there is a scrum of teams separated by three points it's them who are sat in fifth place as I write this. Has anyone ever noticed how long Coyle's teeth are though? He sometimes has that look of Jack Russell when it's teeth are showing and you're undecided if its doing a dog smile, or its about to savage your face.
Were six unbeaten and I doubt Moyes will change the side for this one, Saha aside there is not enough (fit) quality on the bench that you could see improving us. It was a disappointment to concede two soft goals after looking much tighter but other than that the defence looked good enough. Pienaar and Coleman looked dangerous on either side of a midfield that is a bit up and down, a good case for Fellaini to return soon enough. Heitinga looks comfortable, until his predictable 75th minute withdrawal, but alongside Arteta there is just something missing. Cahill and Yakubu look better up front lately, even if it is nice to have Saha ready to take over when we need some impetus/huff around their box without scoring.
So, at least a game to fill the mid week vacuum. Some of you will have been looking at three games in a week and working out how many points out of nine. We could do with a win here otherwise the game with Arsenal on Sunday will start to look sinisterly like a week that promised so much but delivered so little.
Were under the floodlights at Goodison, get into them Everton.