Everton captain Phil Neville staying upbeat as his side hit bottom following draw at Fulham

For a man who won six league titles and a Champions League at Manchester United, it must be a strange feeling to open a newspaper in the morning and find your team bottom of the league. But despite his team’s wretched start to the season, Everton captain Phil Neville is refusing to panic just yet.
A goalless draw at Craven Cottage sustained Everton’s worst start to a Premier League season since 1994. “You come off the field quite pleased with the performance and find you’re bottom of the league,” Neville lamented.
“But if you don’t win football matches, it’s where you deserve to be. There’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to go to Birmingham next week and at the moment draws aren’t good enough for us.”
Everton are developing a reputation for being fashionably late guests to the party.
Indeed, in Neville’s first season at Everton five years ago, they found themselves at the foot of the table after losing seven of their first eight games.
Neville remembered: “I remember saying to Leon Osman: 'Do you think we’ll go down?’ He said 'no, don’t worry, Everton are slow starters but the spirit will show through’.
“That comment has stayed with me ever since. We have too much quality to be in a relegation battle.
“That’s not a guarantee, but the players are determined.” But on the evidence of their display against Fulham, the renaissance will come sooner rather than later. There was evidence of promise all over the pitch: Seamus Coleman, playing his first game at outside right, was sharp and enterprising, Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka are developing a formidable understanding at the centre of defence, and on another day, one of the excellent chances that fell to Yakubu late on would have deflected off two defenders and trickled over the line.
Everton had marginally the better of a game that offered little in the way of opportunities to either side. Just as Fulham missed Bobby Zamora, so they had Louis Saha injured and Tim Cahill only half-fit. When they put a run together, though, there will be few teams who can live with them.
After that abysmal start 16 years ago, the club recovered to end the season as FA Cup winners. Ultimately, the last people to arrive at the party may once more end up having the best time.
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