From ESPN writer James Leblanc:
An Evertonian evolution?
In what was hyped in the pregame as an entertaining, end-to-end affair -- the two sides combined for eight goals at Goodison Park last year -- Everton surprisingly brushed aside Ian Holloway's Blackpool thanks to two goals in the first six minutes. While Landon Donovan's flulike symptoms forced him to miss his final start, he ends another successful loan spell on Merseyside having given the Toffees not only bundles of confidence but having shown Royston Drenthe how to play the right wing effectively. Drenthe was electric on both sides of the pitch against the Tangerines, but his command on the right and his much-improved crossing suggests a subtle shift from the Everton that used to run its attacks firmly up the middle via Tim Cahill (and before his transfer, Mikel Arteta) to one that attacks using the enviable width supplied by Drenthe, Leighton Baines, and Magaye Gueye.
Super-bargain striker Denis "The Argentine Duncan Ferguson" Stracqualursi is beginning to look the player David Moyes has needed to vary Everton's point of attack when the midfield gets too static, and with him as an effective target man for just-returned-from-Spursian-exile Steven Pienaar and Drenthe, Everton could likely sustain this momentum in the absence of Donovan.
Further, Gueye proved he is an able deputy on the left to provide the necessary threat should PIenaar be unavailable. Although this performance should be taken with a grain of salt as it came against a side well-known for being cavalier at the back, it is nevertheless promising for the blue half of Liverpool, and should hopefully give David Moyes cause to celebrate in his upcoming 10th anniversary at Goodison Park.