Everton continue to struggle with the start of the season and few could argue with Moyes' assertion that we just aren't ready. A 1-0 defeat at Burnley follows the 6-1 drubbing by Arsenal and leaves us bottom of the table. Thankfully those results fall either side of a welcome 4-0 win over Sigma which at least gave a boost to our hopes of having a good season - imagine the doom and gloom if we'd lost that one as well !

Things were looking very bad after the Arsenal game so it's all credit to the team and to Moyes that they bounced back with a 4-0 win over Sigma. They started shakily and in truth, were lucky not to concede a penalty early on when Howard looked to have brought down their striker in the box.

As it turns out, we got away with it and stuck four past the Czech outfit, including a thunderbolt of a goal (or even two) from Jack Rodwell who was excellent on the night. Saha was also in great form, scoring two very good goals of his own.

But the defending was still dodgy, particularly in the first half and there's no getting away from the fact that we look shaky at the back. Hardly surprising though given that we only have one fit first team center half at the club. Lescott, cleary doesn't count.

The dodgy defending was back against Burnley, who could have been out of sight after the first ten minutes. In the end they only scored one and Everton were given an unexpected lifeline through a generously awarded penalty following a challenge on Hibbert in the box. Saha pulled his effort well wide though and Everton were left pointless again.

There's no doubt that we're in trouble but I think we'll come good. We've seen this before at Everton under Moyes and the team have always recovered brilliantly after poor starts to finish in the top 6. So there is no need to worry just yet.

But that doesn't mean it isn't frustrating. How many times can we continue to finish in the top 5 or 6, prove ourselves to be "the best of the rest" and still fail to build on this during the summer? We've had opportunities to attract good players, get them in early and hit the ground running and ready to make a real assault on the top 4. But we never do it. Apparently it's not the Everton way and of course that's due to the financial infrastructure behind the club, and this summer in particular, is due to the ongoing transfer saga of Lescott.

It appears that he was always going to go once City met our asking price. Player power dictates that things only really got moving once he began to sulk and make himself unplayable, leaving Everton with only a few days to conduct 30 million worth of business and make sure we're well equipped for the season ahead.

Presumably Moyes knows who he's going for and we have to now wait and see if he can get those players in.

Center halves are obviously the priority. I'd like to see Robert Huth come in first. A big strong defender with premiership experience, he could come straight into the team and do well i think. A fee of 6 million has been mentioned, which is only a quarter of the Lescott money.

And then we need another backup. Stephen Taylor, Senderos, Distain, have all been linked and we need one of these to sign.

With the rest of the money, a pacy winger is essential and it seems that Moyes recognises this and has been linked with several flying Russians. Get one signed!

Lastly, our center midfield seems short on ideas without Arteta and for all the problems Fellaini causes from set pieces, he can't control a game from the center of the park. Do we finally have a chance of signing a Moutinho, Defour or some other strong, commanding midfielder who we've been chasing the last few summers? Time will tell.

For now, I'm just glad we have a 4 goal lead on Sigma and will be happy to get through whatever the result on Thursday. Add 3 points to that against Wigan and we'll have done well but all eyes will be on te transfer market in the next few days.