Driving home from the game all the usual things were getting trotted out on the Radio Merseyside phone-in by ‘Disillusioned from the Dingle' or whoever:
"I think Moyes has taken us as far as he can"
"He's tactically naïve"
"Dithering Dave"
"He wears the collars of his polo shirt out over the neck of his jumper…get him out!"
Ok, so I made the last one up but it does look a bit daft doesn't it?! Nearly as daft as when he dressed up as Mo Sizlack for Villarreal away!
People were also moaning about the fact that we'd gone 4-5-1 again and how we should be going out to attack teams at home and not play such a defensive formation.
This is the last time I'll bring this up (well, it probably won't be) but when you have Arteta, Osman and, particularly, Cahill in the midfield 4-5-1 is not a particularly defensive formation.
And when we were forced into playing 4-4-2 we hardly ripped Villa apart did we?!
And (rant over after this, promise) when we have Beattie up front we just hit the ball up long to him instead of getting crosses in for him to attack.
The Big Dunc flick-on thing just isn't his game and it's unfair to expect him to be able to play it.
Having said that, he doesn't help himself the way he trots around like he's been out with Andy van der Meyde all night.
Oh yeah, I just remembered another mantra: "Give the young lad a chance".
A fair point as he did win more headers than Beattie within about two minutes of arriving on the pitch but, again, it's pointless if we're going to lump long balls up to him.
Anyway, there's a match report to be getting on with here so onto the game and the result against Villa was a massive disappointment.
Particularly as, despite their reputation this season, they weren't really any better than us and, though we didn't trouble Thomas Sorensen much, we had enough chances to win it.
But profligacy has been a bit of a problem for us this season and we've not been able to bury teams and take our chances when they appear.
After a flying start to the season, Andy Johnson's confidence appears to have finally taken a bit of a battering and he's starting to think too much in front of goal instead of just lashing the ball home.
This was evident as he took too many touches in the box after a clear run at goal on and was crowded out by the Villa defence before he could either get his shot away or pass to the unmarked Simon Davies so he could miss it instead.
He then missed, let's be honest, a sitter just before half time as he flashed an effort wide from six yards out.
He did well to turn a defender and get on the end of a James Beattie flick-on but, as the ball sat up nicely for him six yards out, he stabbed at his volley and sent the ball well wide of the Park End goal.
But by this point, Villa were already 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Chris Sutton that owed just as much to a defensive lapse as it did to the deftness of the Villa man's header.
Gabriel Agbonlahor legged it down Villa's right flank before squaring the ball to Isaiah Osbourne (do Villa make these names up?!) who clipped the ball into the box for Sutton to flick the ball past the diving Tim Howard.
The worst thing about the goal was that, despite the presence of several
Everton defenders, Osbourne was not closed down and so could set himself to hit in a good cross and Sutton was not challenged as he rose to meet it.
That's two defensive lapses in the last two games that have ended up costing us.
But our inability to create enough chances, and our failure to convert the ones we do, is more worrying.
Johnson's two chances aside, the only other clear cut openings came at the start of the second half.
Lee Carsley volleyed over after a good run into the box and then James Beattie did well to hit a volley towards the Villa goal but Thomas Sorenson parried it out for a corner.
Which brings us neatly onto another problem area for the Blues this season, set pieces.
Now Mikel Arteta can hit a dead ball as well as anyone, but he's just too inconsistent as too many corners and free kicks don't even beat the first man.
The mad thing in this game was that Simon Davies actually hit the best dead ball into the box, but I can't see that taking off on a regular basis!
To make matters worse for Everton, Tim Cahill was stretchered off after getting crocked by Carsley as they both challenged for a loose ball.
The Park End sages were convinced that he had broken his ankle and so it
came as a slight relief to hear that there was no break but his knee's a bit goosed.
Which could actually turn out worse but we'll all find out soon enough.
The good news is that it's