AFCB's creative players need to find more form

The side that Eddie Howe piked for Goodison was packed with flare. I was looking forward to a real assault on the Everton goal with players like Afobe and Stanislas to come on later and finish the job off. Sadly, the pairing of King and Wilson did not give the Cherries much joy in front of goal and even the runs of Pugh and Ritchie are becoming a bit predictable for other teams to see as they get to know the AFCB way of play.

Goals were hard to come by at Goodison.

When you consider that Everton have played AFCB three times this season it is perhaps not so surprising that Roberto Martinez had a good idea of the strength's of Howe's team and his team defended the wings very well. It was from the wings that AFCB were going to get joy if any at all as Wilson and King were not creating enough through the middle and were well shadowed by Gibson and Stones.

The return of Harry Arter might have fashioned a chance or two, but he was not able to have quite the influence on the game as he often does when he has a few matches under his belt. Surman did have moments when his passing might have opened the Everton back line up but he also needs to start feeling that he can dominate games against the well established Premier League sides.

When you look at the players that AFCB had on the field there was enough creative players to win the game but not enough of them had a strong match. It was no surprise that Stanislas and Afobe came on at the same time as Eddie Howe wanted to see more energy expended in the last third of the pitch. The perfect ball in though just didn't come and neither did the finish.