IF YOU SEE LADY LUCK, TELL HER SHE'S OUT OF ORDER

Mikel Arteta. Out for the season, and for good measure probably the start of next.

A genuine sickening feeling is what most Blues had when they saw him fall clutching his right knee at St James' Park yesterday, and my stomach did summersaults when the worst was confirmed today.

We'd all built our expectations to a head over the last month and now we've got to seriously temper them with regards to everything; the league, a Uefa cup spot push, and worse of all, the F.A. Cup.

Even if Pienaar and Osman come back and play to the top of their combined potential, they are perhaps only worth half of a Mikel Arteta.

Mark O'Brien, as ever, summed it up on Wsag. When the Toffees are very good, it's built on one pretty simple philosophy. Work hard, keep it simple and get the ball to the little Spaniard's feet.

That's when the magic happens.

Well the show's over for a good while now, and Everton are going to need every last bit of the resilience and ingenuity in adversity which has become our calling card to save our season.

You can sense David Moyes's frustration and despair. He finds a way to somehow get us firing despite no strikers and a limited squad and then Lady Luck decides we can't even have that anymore.

I'm not sure this entry has much more to offer than self pity and wound licking.
We can only keep our fingers crossed about Pienaar, Osman and Cahill's rapid returns and hope Fellaini starts operating like a £15m man soon.

In other news, I'm made up Kevin Nolan apologised for nearly snapping Victor's leg in that XXX horror but he didn't seem too contrite when he was giving it the continental pleading and the big, astounded eyes to the ref in the immediate aftermath.

He may be a decent fella, but there are very few - if any - proper Corinthians around anymore.

If Nolan was one, he'd have ran straight off after the tackle once he'd apologised instantly.