As the old football adages go, if you can’t win just make sure you don’t lose and if you play badly and still come out of the game with something, then it can only be a positive. This was a frustrating match to watch because for most of the 90-odd minutes, it felt as though the points were there for Everton to grab but it never looked like they had what it took to do so — at least, not until Carlos Alcaraz was introduced as a second-half substitute and almost laid on the winner for Beto.

Just as he had done at Crystal Palace, the Argentine raced away on the counter and fed the Portuguese striker but, just like at Brentford, this just wasn’t Beto’s day. To be fair to him, it was a more difficult chance than most of the one-on-ones he has had in recent weeks but for almost all of this game he was clumsy, ineffective and just not at the races.

Collectively, Everton just weren’t “at it” either. The defence felt disconcertingly vulnerable at times, particularly at set-pieces, and the goal they conceded that wiped out Jack Harrison’s deflected opener was a poor one to concede but at the end of the day, the draw represented another point and it extended the Blues’ unbeaten run, the longest since Ronald Koeman was scowling on the touchline, to eight matches. Such a record was unthinkable two months ago and if you’re searching for other positives, the manager is learning all the time about the players he has and the ones he will need for next season.

Whether Abdoulaye Doucouré is one of those remains to be seen. Everton declined to take up a Club option to add a further year on the one-time Mali International’s contract on the existing terms and it could be that his form over the rest of the campaign and his willingness to reduce his wages are the determining factors if he stays.

On tonight’s evidence, Moyes won’t be rushing to the negotiating table. Like Beto and Jesper Lindstrøm, Doucouré looked as though he had left his touch and his best form in Abu Dhabi where the team spent a warm-weather break. Those who feared the hiatus might rob the side of some of its momentum probably had those concerns validated even if you couldn’t begrudge the players a well-earned trip to recharge after a hectic start to 2025.

Having missed the draw at Brentford, Doucouré was recalled to the starting XI and Alcaraz dropped to the bench and, in fairness to the former, he almost gave the Toffees the perfect start before his personal display tailed off. A first effort from 25 yards was charged down but with 10 minutes gone, he found himself with the ball at his feet in the penalty area at the end of a good move. He initially mis-controlled then cleverly tamed it and turned in a tight space but again saw his effort blocked.

From the resulting corner, though, Beto really should have had the ball in the net. The set-piece was worked short and when Harrison swung a teasing left-footer into the six-yard box, it needed just the merest of touches from the striker to knock it past José Sà but he failed to make any contact.

Wolves, who, under Vitor Pereira — he of the interesting past Everton connections — were chasing a victory that would have put more daylight between them and the relegation zone following Ipswich Town’s defeat at Crystal Palace earlier the day, then had a threatening spell themselves.

Rayan Aït-Nouri was allowed to drive forward through the Toffees’ midfield and afforded enough space to shoot but James Tarkowski stuck out a leg to divert his effort wide. From the corner, Marshall Munetsi connected well with a header but Jordan Pickford made an excellent parrying save.

The visitors drew first blood, however, in the 33rd minute after Tarkowski had stepped ahead of Jørgen Strand Larsen to intercept a defensive clearance that fell to the feet of Lindstrøm. The Dane slipped as he attempted to cross but conveniently found Harrison who shimmied with the ball at his feet and then despatched a shot that appeared to take a double deflection off two defenders before nestling in the far side of the goal.

The home crowd were already nervy and frustrated with their team’s propensity to give the ball away while trying to play out from the back and the goal should have been a platform from which Everton could have gone on to kill the game but Pereira’s men rallied instead.

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde was the latest player to be allowed space to line up a shot and he missed Pickrord’s left-hand post by inches while, a few minutes later, Munetsi’s header off another corner dropped to André at the back post but he lashed the ball into the side-netting.

Everton weren’t so fortunate five minutes before half-time, though. Once more ceding time and space to the opposition, they permitted Aït-Nouri to scythe through them, pick out Bellegarde who, in turn, played a perfectly-weighted pass to Munetsi to stroke past Pickford and level the score.

From the Blues’ perspective, the second half failed to live up to the hopes that Moyes would have roused them with his half-time team talk. The indefatigable Idrissa Gueye and industrious James Garner aside, there wasn’t much to admire and it was unfortunate that the Senegalese wasn’t able to put the icing on another man-of-the-match display by restoring Everton’s lead. Unfortunately, his rising shot in the 56th minute cleared the crossbar by some distance.

For Wolves, Joao Gomes had seen a shot blocked before it could trouble Pickford while substitute Pablo Sarabia rippled the side-netting with a direct free-kick that had Pickford scurrying across his goal-line before the match swung from end-to-end in the 72nd minute.

First, Pickford was forced into another impressive save, readjusting his leg quickly to divert away Strand Larsen’s shot from the angle leading to Everton breaking away on the counter. Alcaraz skipped over a despairing challenge in the centre-circle and smartly teed up Beto but Sa read his attempt to bend it into the corner and pushed the strike away one-handed.

Alcaraz stung the Portuguese keeper’s hands with a strong left-footed effort late on and Sarabia missed the target after cutting inside before the game petered out after three minutes of stoppage time.

In the final reckoning, a draw was probably a fair result and the big take-away for Evertonians is that while winning is always the goal, the results now are essentially meaningless in a football sense given that Everton are effectively safe; pride and prize money are the remaining rewards and, again, it’s all valuable insight for the manager and the recruitment team.

We have the luxury of being able to be frustrated at the Blues having dropped six points from the last three games and aren’t sitting in joint 11th in the table with Crystal Palace. Again: before Moyes came on board, that was an unthinkable scenario.

Lyndon Lloyd