It was a rough start to the weekend's proceedings for Mick McCarthy's Wolverhampton, who were destroyed at home by Everton. Although things started reasonably well for the hosts, who threatened Tim Howard's net frequently in the opening exchanges, a goal against the run of play courtesy of Jermaine Beckford sucked the wind out of their sails and two goals immediately before the end of the first half killed off the game entirely.
The only reason that the game wasn't entirely dead before Phil Neville and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov's screamers was thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey, who pulled off several minor miracles as Wolves were pushed onto the back foot, keeping out a flying header from Phil Jagielka and then making an excellent save to prevent an own goal seconds prior to Neville's thunderbolt.
Matches that go into half-time at 3-0 are unlikely to be much of a contest after the teams pop out again, and this one didn't (did?) disappoint. Everton saw most of the ball but were happy to keep it rather than go for goal and risk exposing Tim Howard, and Wolves looked as though they were more than a little confused by the whole concept of this 'football' thing. But for a two-minute spell in which Howard was forced into acrobatic stops from Adlene Guedioura and Karl Henry, the hosts were utterly hopeless going forward in the second spell and were more good value for being down by three goals.
The result leaves Wolverhampton in 19th place, just one point ahead of Wigan and with a -20 goal differential, and with the sides above them in the table still to play, this could be a very bad weekend indeed for McCarthy's men. Meanwhile, David Moyes and company find themselves consolidating their hold on 7th spot. Considering Everton's start to the season that would be an excellent finishing place for the Toffees.