Seven games without a win, seven goals shipped in two games against Benfica - along with the Portuguese giving us a bit of a footballing lesson at Goodison - it was imperative that the Blues picked up their customary three points against West Ham.
And, thanks to goals from Louis Saha and Dan Gosling, they went and did it!
But it was the home side that controlled the game early on and carved out the better chances.
Zavon Hines, in for the injured Carlton Cole, and Luis Jiminez twice combined to create openings before Scott Parker got past Joseph Yobo to fire in a shot that Tim Howard did well to gather.
West Ham then won a free kick in a good position as Tony Hibbert fouled Franco - there just aren't enough footballers named after European despots these days - but the delivery from Jimiez was poor and Jack Rodwell cleared the danger.
Then, just as the Evertonians crammed into Upton Park were starting to get a little nervy at the amount chances the Hammers were creating, Louis Saha did what he does best and got us a goal from nowhere.
Tim Cahill picked up the ball just outside the West Ham penalty box and held off the Hammers defence to lay the ball back to the onrushing Saha.
There still didn't seem to be much of a chance on but the Frenchman drilled a first-time, curling, daisy-cutter just inside Dopey's - sorry, Robert Green's - right-hand post to send the travelling Blues mental.
Everton got battered for the best part of 75 minutes here last season when Saha came on to turn the game and score two in an eventual 3-1 win for Everton.
The Frenchman did the same in this one as his goal, against the run of play, rocked West Ham as Everton began to take the game to the home side, carving out a number of chances before the interval.
Dan Gosling fired one effort fractionally over the bar, Saha headed a good chance wide from 12 yards out and a Tim Cahill volley was easily gathered by Green.
Having weathered the initial West Ham storm, Everton went into the break one-nil up and the, ultimately fruitless, hunt for half-time jellied eels began.
There weren't even any un-jellied eels for God's sake!
The second half began in the most scrappy of fashions with play being constantly broken up by niggly fouls and Everton's Tony Hibbert and Marouane Fellaini were both booked within minutes of the restart.
Once the game settled down it was West Ham that once again took control of matters but, once again, Everton that got on with the scoring.
Yakubu, a second half substitute for Saha, battled for possession and layed the ball off to Dan Gosling who was breaking into the box like a latter day Carlos Alberto.
Gosling intial right-footed strike was parried by Green but fell to Gosling again who lashed the ball home with his left.
But before the travelling hoardes had time to sit back down West Ham had pulled one back thanks to some inexplicable defending from Tony Hibbert!
Alessandro Diamanti - no, really - clipped a neat diagonal ball over the Everton defence towards Junior Stanislas who dinked a shot over Tim Howard.
The effort was creeping towards goal but it looked like Tony Hibbert would be on hand to hack away the danger.
He didn't!
He just twatted the ball into the roof of his own net!
As own goals go - and there's no such thing as a bad own goal - it was hilarious and reminiscent of Wayne Hatswell's own goal at Forest Green a few years ago.
If you haven't seen Hatswell's effort you can see it here, it's an own goal so funny that a 'Hatswell' should now be a commonplace noun!
Anyway, West Ham v Everton...the Hammers, having come back from two goals down against Arsenal, could sense that Everton were also susceptible to blowing doubles.
Unfotunately for the Hammers, Everton were proving to be more resilient than in recent weeks and good chances for Hines and Diamanti went begging.
Then Tim Howard did well to bravely snatch the ball off the toe of Franco just outside the six-yard-box and all but secured an Everton win.
The result puts the Hammers back in the drop zone and Everton up to the heady heights of 12th and good old fashioned mid-table mediocrety.