Everton finish the campaign at seventh place and therefore will not be in Europe once again next season. David Moyes will be frustrated with the lack of progress his team has made over the last 12 months but in the current financial state of the club, this is the current ceiling for the Toffees and their fans have grown to accept that. That was in many ways a classing Everton season of late as they started off poorly but were one of the better teams in the league in the second half of the season. Moyes added almost no new blood to the team in the summer and the loss of Mikel Arteta at the end of the transfer window was a body blow as well. Everton were struggling to get wins under their belt with Louis Saha and Tim Cahill badly off form. They suffered a 2:0 loss at home to Liverpool in October and actually went on a long run without a victory in front of their fans that stretched from September to December. They claimed the odd good result on the road but were sitting in the bottom half of the table with the threat of a relegation scrap hanging. Moyes then became active in the market and brought Landon Donnovan for another spell at Goodison Park while also swopping for Darron Gibson and Nikica Jelavic. Suddenly the Merseyside outfit took off and claimed wins at home to Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham in succession while also going on a good run in the FA Cup. The momentum was maintained in March as well when Everton beat Sunderland in an epic quarter-final of the Cup after a replay. Jelavic was scoring for fun, Marouane Fellaini was dominant in midfield and John Heitinga was imposing at centre-back. It all look perfectly set-up against a flagging Liverpool in the semi-finals at Wembley and Everton were in the lead but then they just lost the plot and conceded twice late in the game to allow the Reds to defeat them. It was a bitter pill to swallow but Moyes galvanised his team and they delivered a sterling performance to get a draw at Manchester United the next week, coming from behind to claim a 4:4 draw. They finished strongly and are above Liverpool in the table for only the second time in 27 years but it is small consolation for that painful loss in the FA Cup.
