BLUES GET WINNING FEELING

Beto, Ndiaye and Dewsbury-Hall fire Everton to victory as they move up table

- By JOE THOMAS

BUCKLE up, Everton supporters. This season threatens to be a ride like no other. After years of turgid, cautious and at times bewildering football centred on survival and survival only, you have a team that can play.

There will be ups and downs - there is a core of players here that will have to force themselves to adapt to a life in which possession stats and xG figures are no longer numbers dogged with humiliation. That will take time and it was Everton who made this game tough - not Wolves.

But David Moyes has assembled a team of technically-gifted players capable of creativity and intricacy that, if it can be used in the right way, should make this the season of excitement that has long been craved.

Exhibit one for this match report-cum-TED Talk is Jack Grealish. Four games into his loan spell there will be a chorus of clubs up and down Europe suddenly wondering why they did not explore his availability. The message from the 29-year-old’s camp is that he has traded the Alice band for a pony tail because he means business. Thomas Tuchel did not name him in his latest England squad. If he carries on like this he will be one of the first names on the teamsheet when the next international break comes around in October.

The 29-year-old exuded quality in this 3-2 win and was key in each of the goals. He is calm personified. His gentle back post nod across the box handed Beto the opener on a plate. For the second goal, he linked up with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall twice in quick succession, first to break behind the defence and shoot at Jose Sa before then feeding his overlapping teammate, sending him into the space from which he crossed for Iliman Ndiaye to prod home.