DROPPING THE UNDROPPABLES?

DOES anyone else still feel a bit listless about our season since the hefty blow of exiting the Uefa cup at the first hurdle?

I do. The positivity started to trickle back when the United game showed signs of Old Everton, and since then back to back wins has at least made our league position much healthier.
But there still hasn't been anything to fire the imagination or get the blood pumping. Nothing like the flamboyance of our 7-1 humbling of Sunderland, or the sexy football at home against Larissa.
Putting aside constant thorny issues like Kirkby, transfer budgets, ownership and the Moyes' contract debacle the feeling of malaise won't disappear until our home form settles.
And the main source of concern remains the pitiful displays of three players who seem to be battling horribly-timed simultaneous form slumps.
In truth we haven't seen the best of Mikel Arteta for some time. His excuse last term was a niggling groin injury.
Quite what is making our most naturally gifted footballer perform so poorly this season is beyond me. He gives the ball away, rarely hits the mark with dead balls and continues to over-elaborate and shy away from shooting despite having a potent strike.
Equally Yakubu threatens to make mugs of us all by proving those nay-saying Boro fans right.
When the chunky Nigerian joined from Teesside he came with catcalls of being a player who seemed great at first then faded fast.
He proved them wrong by still rattling in goals after Christmas - and finally notched an impressive 20.
But this season, with no European football, he seems a changed man. The Yak spends most of his time shirking any hint of a header, falling on his behind and looking a bit miffed.
Perhaps the thinnest of excuses for him is a lack of service from an unsettled midfield. But the biggest surprise are how plausible the arguments for dropping him at present sound in favour of the work-rate of Vaughan or surprise element of Saha.
Finally, the most disturbing slump is that which is crippling last season's best player.
As a rampaging left-back Joleon Lescott was one of the top three defenders in the top flight.
Near flawless - big Joleon seemed imperious to attackers, calm under pressure, immaculate in the air AND weighed in with 10 goals.
This season you might as well think of the opposite of all those attributes and you've got Lescott.
It's too easy to suggest that regular England football has turned his head. That argument doesn't have any real logical legs.
But what does then? Why is he looking another previously undroppbale player whose place should now be in question.
The answer could lie in his reported desire to play at centre-half. Switched there by a manager who kept to his word, Lescott seemed nervy instead of flourishing.
Combined with the outstanding form of Jagielka and pace of Yobo, it was entirely understandable that Moyes switched him back.
Whether he harbours sulky resentment at his lot is for him and the manager to resolve. The only way he can improve things is by playing his way out of this crisis of form.
Whether we can afford to let all three play their way back into form - and indeed, whether they can - remains to be seen.

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