You’ve got to feel for David Moyes and the never ending injury situation at Goodison Park. Since they finished fourth in 2005, it seems every season starts in December due to the injury affliction that seemingly curses the Toffees. Thankfully, we’re past the days when teams blamed gypsy curses for bad luck or injuries. I never understood those strange tales, especially as they always seemed to affect sides that had previously had success.

Do theses curses have timers included in the spell when it’s cast? Thankfully, Goodison seems to be the type of place were such nonsense isn’t given a second thought. There is no doubt that Everton have consistently punched above their weight for the best part of David Moyes’ reign. They’ve finished lower than 6th once in the last 5 years and now once again, Everton are charging up the table.

Wednesday’s nights victory at Manchester City acted as a reminder for people that for all the excitement on who would finish fourth, Everton can still cause perceived better sides problems. In the shakedown of the season, Everton seem to be the one side everyone forgets. Since the turn of the year, they’ve only lost 2 league games against Spurs and Liverpool and beat Manchester United and Chelsea. An injury time equaliser from Thomas Rosicky saved Arsenal’s blushes at the Emirates Stadium in January.

The upturn in their fortunes is consistently overlooked, but they’ve clawed back a 13 point gap on 7th and are now breathing down Aston Villa’s neck. It would be easy for Moyes to blame lack of investment compared with all the teams above them, but he simply does the best he can with what he has. It is a return most chairman would die for, yet in giving us the most consistent Everton side since the mid 80′s, Everton still don’t get the credit they deserve.

Perhaps people miss the point with Everton, but on song, they are a damn fine team, with the delightful Arteta in the side pulling the strings. Any side shorn of the quality that he, along with Saha and Jagielka, brings to the Toffees side, would find the going tough, but they simply seem to get along with it. This season, the emergence of Leighton Baines as a top quality left back has allowed Moyes to use the criminally underrated Phil Neville to slip in at right back in place of the erratic Tony Hibbert.

Added to that, John Heitinga’s flexibility in his ability to play seemingly anywhere in defence or midfield shows his transfer fee to be an absolute steal. For £6.2 million, the Dutch international has shown that Ajax still produce such adaptable and talented players that no other club can compare to. In comparison to the man he replaced, Joleon Lescott, Heitinga is simply a far better player on every level. He even seems to have survived a spell at the modern footballers graveyard, Athletico Madrid.

With the breakthrough of Jack Rodwell and Dan Gosling to consistently make the side and grow as players can only be a good thing for Everton. For a club with the stature and history that they have, why they struggle to gain any real investment is a mystery to me. I grew up watching an Everton side that were real challengers for titles both at home and abroad before being curtailed by English footballs ban from European for that dark 5 year period between 1985 to 1990. I have no doubt that Everton could have won the European Cup in 1986 rather than perhaps the worst European Champions in modern history, Steaua Bucharest and their blanketing tactics.

Moyes is well aware of the history and tradition that Everton have. The halcyon era’s of Howard Kendall and Harry Catterick may be distant history to some as many remember the side that struggled to hang on to their top flight status throughout much of the 1990′s. Everton have been a top flight side since 1954, the second longest in English football behind Arsenal. That’s 56 seasons in the top division, if that’s not history, I don’t know what is.

A late charge for 4th would be miraculous, but I wouldn’t bet on them finishing 8th. As Villa stutter, City keep missing chances and Liverpool’s dreadfully negative football keeps failing, they could be well pressed to finish above at least one of those sides. It would be a massive fillip for Moyes, the wonderfully supportive chairman Bill Kenwright and the fans for them to push upwards.

Then this summer hope that he can keep a full strength side for the beginning of the season and add a bit more strength upfront. The perhaps Everton’s fans may begin to think of more than the Europa League and cup semi-finals for once and bring home a bit of silverware once again.

If you can’t beat them, buy them. That has often been Manchester United’s strategy when the club has lost pivotal league games against smaller English clubs and/or have been embarrassed by Premier League players who display incredible raw skill. United has often gone on to purchase many of those footballers.

Examples include Everton (Wayne Rooney), Fulham (Louis Saha – after he scored against United and later joined them, and Edwin van der Sar), Tottenham (Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Carrick) and Wigan (Antonio Valencia). It’s a smart transfer strategy because you make sure the smaller clubs will never break into the Big Four. But it also prevents those players being bought by rival clubs, and makes sure that those players won’t embarrass United again.

Based on his display during Saturday’s early kick off between Everton and Manchester United, don’t be surprised if Manchester United takes another close look at Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell with the hopes of signing him this summer. Sir Alex Ferguson was reported to be interested in signing Rodwell last year, but based on his confidence and composure on the ball today when he scored the third and final goal for Everton to beat Manchester United, Ferguson will surely be even more interested now. Sure, Rodwell only had a limited amount of playing time Saturday after coming off the bench, but the way he took his goal gives you a clear indication of the skill he has.

It’s not just the way that Manchester United plucks raw talent to make sure they stay near the top of the Premier League. It’s what they do to these players after they join. It’s incredible to consider how Wayne Rooney has taken his raw talent when he was at Everton, as well as his violent temper, and turned it into a controlled and magic ability to beat the best players and teams in the world. The same can be said for many players who have moved from smaller English clubs and moved to United.

But it’s not just Manchester United who will be on alert regarding Rodwell’s talent. Rodwell is a versatile player who has also been touted as a center back in the making, and which top teams in the Premier League would pass up a player like that who possesses the ability to score up front, command midfield and has the potential to do a brilliant job in the back? In fact, Rodwell has been called the new Rio Ferdinand.

Don’t be surprised if Manchester City or Arsenal try to capture the signing of Rodwell from under the noses of Manchester United. Whoever gets him, expect Everton to get a hefty transfer fee as much as 20-30 million pounds for the player who joined the Toffees when he was a child.

This is a player who has already broken many records including being the youngest ever Everton player to play in European competition and the youngest Everton scorer in European competition. Plus he has an encouraging England career ahead of him after an impressive display for the under-21 England team in the 2009 European Championships.

Photo credit: BackpageFootball.

If today’s PFA Player of the Year shortlist shows us anything, announcing the player of the year with almost 6 weeks of the season left looks a stupid decision. With only Steven Gerrard not from Manchester United on the six player shortlist, it just shows how quickly things in football can change. What if Frank Lampards goals fire Chelsea to a treble this season? What if Arsenal win the Champions League? Could Manchester United miss out on the Premiership, F.A. Cup and Champions League yet have a player win the PFA award?

Has Edwin Van Der Saar really been the best Premiership goalkeeper this season? Surely Mark Schwarzer’s contribution for Fulham has been more important between the sticks, as perhaps Shay Given at Newcastle and Manchester City this season can claim too. Manchester United could play a snowman in goal sometimes and no-one would notice.

Liverpool have now only got one chance of silverware after Wednesdays classic Champions League Quarter Final say Chelsea edge them out, with Lampard once again dragging the Blues through. Lampard has now scored 19 goals in all competitions, 2 less than Gerrard and Ronaldo but has set up more goals for his team mates than those two put together.Ferdinand has been superb all season, Vidic has seen his form drift away since February.

I don’t understand why the PFA awards have to be announced so soon and the voting to be concluded before all the major trophies are handed out. Last season, it was obvious that Ronaldo was head and shoulders ahead of anyone else, won all the domestic player awards and then failed to deliver once again for Portugal, spent all Summer flirting with Real Madrid and then missed the beginning of the season through injury and still won the World Player of  The Year Award.

This year, there is no stand out candidate, but for Lampard to be omitted is beyond a joke. During the final weeks of Scolari’s reign at Stamford Bridge, Lampard carried them single handed it seemed to try and keep them in as many competitions as possible, showing  guts and determination throughout the chaos that seemed to be going on all around him. Are professional players that daft that they couldn’t see that?

The Young Player of the Year award seems even more ludicrous, only 3 of the candidates have truly played well all season. Ireland, Rafael and Lennon have been head and shoulders above the other 3 candidates, with Ireland being the stand out nomination. Of the other 3, Agbonlahor has scored 3 goals since Christmas, has Jonny Evans been that good all season  and Ashley Young has been so inconsistent as to be almost laughable to be included in the final six.

How two Aston Villa players could be included when they’ve won 3 games out of their last 15 matches makes me think that the nominations must have been done on New Years Eve because Villa have fallen away so far and are in danger of finishing 6th when they had a good chance of finishing 3rd. Are there so few young players kicking around? Where’s Jack Rodwell? Mark Noble and Jack Collinson from West Ham have both had excellent seasons yet don’t feature at all.

Hopefully Ferdinand and Ireland will win the awards, but the nominations themselves just don’t make any sense at all. It’s time to move them to the end of the season when it actually matters.

I have to admit this is one return I am glad to see.

After getting match fit in the reserves, and helping Croatia to a friendly victory, Eduardo Da Silva returned to the Arsenal starting eleven in glorious fashion Monday night as his two goals blasted Arsenal into the fifth round of the FA Cup in a 4-0 defeat of Cardiff City.

Last year when we saw Eduardo’s horrific injury, I seriously doubted Eduardo would be back in eighteen months, much less 24. To be back in less than twelve is a credit to modern medicine.

For Eduardo every game now has to be a dream. The roar from the Emirates crowd when he headed on Vela’s ball spine tingling. While granted this was Cardiff City, Eduardo looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.

His return to the first team should be a much needed boost for Arsenal’s chances of finishing inside the top four. The only hope for me is that Eduardo bounces back from that first hard tackle that will probably be intentionally coming once he starts again in the Premier League.

It was indeed the perfect dream return for Eduardo. Here’s to many more happy returns.

There was other big Arsenal news tonight. Red and White Holdings Limited, the Alisher Usmanov group, has announced they have increased their stake in Arsenal. Now at 25 percent, they are inching their way closer to the magical thirty percent number. That is the percentage that would require formal takeover talks to begin.

Furthermore, at twenty-five percent, Usmanov can now block attempts by the Arsenal board at changing the financial structure of the club or the transfer of equity to other board members.

While it doesn’t look likely a formal takeover bid could happen in the short term, one does have to wonder what Usmanov’s intentions are with the club? Having twenty-five percent of the club, he’s been an awfully silent partner with the club. Though with share prices about twenty-five percent lower since Usmanov’s initial purchase, could we see a takeover bid? All it would take is a percentage of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith’s shares.

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Everton have shone up the services of Jack Rodwell for the next five years. With his performances of late, he deserves it. I know it’s early, and he’s no Wayne Rooney, but will Rodwell be one of these people who will want to move on in a few years time?

Guus Hiddink is worried about his players fitness. I guess age and not being at AC Milan will do that.

Rafa Benitez is claiming that he wants his Liverpool future sorted soon…and denying he wants total control of transfers. Usually when the quote reads ‘I would like to clear one thing up – I have never asked for complete control’, that usually means you have.

Robinho is doubtful for Manchester City as FC Copenhagen approaches midweek in the UEFA Cup.

Here’s the latest player to complain about English food. That person, Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Roman Abramovich has seen his wealth drop to 13.9 billion dollars. At the rate he fires managers, it won’t take long for that wealth to be zero.

And Newcastle United could be getting Mark Viduka, Obafemi Martins and Alan Smith back for their clash against Everton. However for Mark Viduka, he won’t be back next season.

EPL Talk reader EPLNFL was at last night’s friendly between Chicago Fire and Everton at Toyota Park. Here’s his mini-report from the game:

“As a Fire fan I had a great time with a 2-0 Chicago victory. As a EPL fan I was disappointed in Everton and the quality of play. They were extremely cautious with the ball during the first half moving the ball more backwards then forward at times. In the second half, they came out more aggressive and tried to break the ball up the middle — with no results however.

Clearly Everton is training and weary from the US Tour, but the Fire was without Blanco and McBride which leaves them with no offense. David Moyes is a favorite of mine and, of course Tim Howard I follow with great interest, but if Everton keeps up this form it’s the bottom half of the table this season!

There were about 250 people in the American supporters group for Everton and an additional group of English fans on the US tour. The American supporters seemed to be a very good group and no trouble was seen by me. The tour group seemed to be on the verge of a beer too many but gave no trouble.”

To view more photographs from the game, visit the EPL Talk photos section.

Thanks to EPLNFL (aka Lou Bruno) for providing the photos and mini-match report. A more detailed match report will be published tomorrow.

Editor’s note: To be fair, this was not Everton’s first team squad. Several players got a run-out for the Toffees including new faces Jose Baxter, Dan Gosling and Jack Rodwell.