Thank you Lyndon. It's difficult to take issue with your assessment and conclusions. Alcaraz was a stand out and had a significant impact but Moyes reluctance to start him is worrying. Most of us would agree that he is exactly the sort of player we need to be at the heart of the team. O' Brien and Branthwaite looked comfortable together.

Patterson, however, failed the audition. Harrison and Doucoure too ( again !) I worry that the season will peter out but hoping that I am wrong and that at least the final games at Goodison provide real excitement and an appropriate farewell.

Spot on Lyndon.

I have said on a number of threads and I’m still beating the Drum… Patterson IS not up to the Premier League.

he is a guileless player. Who was fobbed on us for something like 16 million and they saw us coming!

Ok! Stop me if I'm wrong, maybe it wasn’t 16 million and it’s my aging memory.

We are/were suckers for players with potential, but years later they are still trying to realise their Potential.. DCL being a case in point.

As it turned out, they had potential to have potential !

We ( imho) have at least 80% of our squad to clear out!

Roll on the Grim Reaper !

Un coup de scythe before we can start to think about competing with the likes of Crystal Palace, Fulham, Brighton,etc

Yes! These teams that we knocked aside, back in the Day.

Thanks for the report Lyndon. Our play in the first half was terrible against a mediocre Chelsea team. We could hardly string two passes together. The substitutions sparked an improvement in the second half but it was a case of too little too late.

Once again the inability of our players to create and convert chances was brutally exposed. Beto’s purple patch in February seems like a long time ago. Opposing defenders have learned to close off his runs on to through balls, most of which are of indifferent quality. As we know the rest of his game is below Premier League level.

Our tally of 34 goals is the lowest outside the relegated teams. Somehow in the summer we need to add 15 to 20 goals to the squad if we are to have any hope of competing for a place in the top half the table.

We have 38 points. Only the bottom 3 have have had less than our 8 wins all season. We have drawn 14 games. We have lost 12 games many by a single goal. We have conceded 41 goals. Only 5 teams have a better defensive record.

Our great issue is we average a single goal a game. Only the bottom 3 are worse than that. We have an excellent goalkeeper and four really good defenders plus Gueye. Hence our defensive record and ability to draw games we would have lost in the past.

Our record at Goodison is dismal, 4 wins all season. We have no quality in midfield nor in attack. We kid ourselves about Ndiaye and Alcaraz. Thank goodness we can start clearing out the mess created by the previous regime but there is a huge way to go especially as our academy produces a few Championship players at best. The new stadium and ownership is the light at the end of a very long tunnel.

We really need to get real if we think this squad can get wins at Anfield, the Etihad, the Emirates or Stamford Bridge. There is so much to be done over 3 or 4 transfer windows, good luck Mr Moyes but realism is the order of the day not fantasy.

It was some new manager bounce, now flat again.

The one-on-ones spurned all season apart from the Beto purple patch show the need for a finisher.

There are many limitations, attacking wise, in our squad. The lack of ability to score more than we miss of the good chances, is extremely destructive to hopes of progress.

Oh for a striker of the quality of Viktor Gyokeres.

Peter Quinn 4

You’ve just Highlighted the Gawd awful truth !
I doubt there is many, that would argue with you.

A real disappointment.
The first half we looked like Dyche was back in charge,
Beto unfortunately looked even clumsier than usual, Patterson and Harrison did their claims little good.
The centre back pairing looked excellent to me.
Dukes contributed little if anything positive.
The referee bottled the Sanchez assault on Myko.
Second half much better, in that we turned up and looked interested and posed threats.
I think DM would have learned a lot.

I wanted to be angry with Moyes but soon realized I did not have any better ideas. We could have started Alcaraz but defensively we were already compromised with Patterson and Beto.

I'm not sure Alcaraz could have helped Beto up front. Alcaraz's passing touch is not top class and Beto is a limited possesion opportunity, get it to his feet or there is uncertainty. We needed the Broja then Beto setup. With more reliable possession, Patterson may have been more useful.

The last twenty minutes was a surprise and we had chances but the lack of sustained possession earlier in the game made us twitchy in the final third. Only some combinations between Alcaraz and McNeil showed any real potential.

This was the reason why I would have preferreed Moyes avoid any happy talk. A relapse was always waiting to happen. Let's see what he does to get a response from the players.