WITH one roll of his nimble ankle, Gareth Bale induced decidedly mixed feelings in onlooking Everton FC fans on Thursday evening.
Blues glued to Tottenham’s absorbing Europa League clash with Basle ahead of tomorrow’s trip to White Hart Lane may have felt conflicted at that moment.
The Welsh wonder’s misfortune was clearly painful and it was a shame to consider that one of the Premier League’s leading performers may not play much of a part in the campaign’s climax; however in the short-term it also delivered something of a reprieve for the Toffees.
Combined with injuries to Aaron Lennon and experienced defensive linchpin William Gallas, Bale’s withdrawal on a stretcher had the distinct whiff of opportunity for David Moyes.
There’s no doubting the significance of tomorrow’s game.
It will be the first of several severely testing away fixtures as Everton chase their dwindling prospects of a top four finish.
It was always going to be difficult against a side brimming with attacking threat, but on one dramatic evening in North London 48 hours ago it became that little bit less severe.
Nobody in the Finch Farm camp will be allowed to become complacent. But the absence of Spurs’ influential trio can only be a good thing. It means that while previously Moyes’s attacking full-backs, Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, may have been restricted in their ability to cause the Londoners problems, now they will have freer reign.
Certainly without two of his own key men in Marouane Fellaini and Steven Pienaar, Moyes will have more options to hurt the opposition than he had previously been able to consider.
Everton have rarely left White Hart Lane with three points over the years; now fortune has handed them something almost resembling a mandate. They will still need to produce a vibrant performance, and deal with the considerable threat elsewhere in white shirts as Gylfi Sigurdsson approaches top form and Moussa Dembele is always a handful.
It would have been interesting to see how Moyes had planned to deal with Bale’s threat – but nobody of a Blue persuasion will be too concerned at missing that opportunity.
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