Everton have today completed the signing of Belgian international Kevin Mirallas from Olympiakos.

The 24-year old arrives at Goodison Park after agreeing a four-year deal and passing a medical on Saturday evening. He will wear the number 11.

Discussions between the two clubs had been ongoing during the course of the last week and after an undisclosed fee was agreed late on Friday evening, Mirallas headed to Merseyside to complete the formalities.

Speaking exclusively to evertontv ahead of training with his new teammates for the first time at Finch Farm, he said: “I am very happy because Everton is a big club and for me it's a very good opportunity.

“I've known Everton have been following me for a while and after talking with the manager I decided coming to Everton was the best opportunity for me.

“I know this is a great club with great supporters and a club that has the ability to win a lot of games in the Premier League. That's why I came.”

Everton have won the signature of Mirallas ahead of a number of top European clubs who had reportedly been keeping close tabs on the forward player’s progress after he scored 20 goals in 25 appearances for Olympiakos in 2011/12.

"We're really pleased to get Kevin," said manager David Moyes. "He'll hopefully add a bit of quality to the squad, give us some more options and we need him. We've lost one of two players so we're delighted to get Kevin in."

Due to his signing taking place after Friday’s 12pm deadline, he will not be eligible to play in Monday’s Barclays Premier League opener with Manchester United but will be at Goodison Park and unveiled in front of what is hoped to be a capacity crowd.

Prior to his arrival in Greece, Mirallas had spells with St Etienne and Lille in France, having earlier started his career at his hometown club Standard Liege.

Mirallas, who can play behind the striker or on either wing, featured for his national team in last Wednesday's 4-2 win over Holland, a game watched by Blues boss David Moyes.

EFC

Congrats Everton. U've done well against the English FA team of referees MAnu

Great to see Tony Hibbert career rejuvenate. I could almost swear his career with Everton nearly came to an end few season ago when the club signed plenty of defensive options, and Sheamus Coleman took his place few years ago.

What a week and what a match, congrats! 

now everton will be my second team....
bwahaha

great week for belgians .. With hazard,lukaku n felaini..

Rodwell is a great business transaction
Perhaps we can do more.
AJ plus more money for Fellaini?

great game last night
you beat manchster united with the help of the ref
must be from rodwell transfer (under the table money)

now they bising becoz ref dont help them.. ref aready give 4 minutes fergie time ..

They always bising one la, born with big mouths.

Everton 1-0 Man United – Tactical Deconstruction

Teams & Formations

Everton lined up in the usual 4-4-1-1 with the same forward 6 players that played in the 4-4 draw at Old Trafford in May. Further back, Distin’s superior pace gave him the nod ahead of the unfortunate Heitinga. United went in with a 4-2-3-1 with Welbeck and Nani on the flanks with new signing Kagawa in ‘the hole’ behind Rooney. Rio Ferdinand’s injury meant that Carrick was deployed at centre half with Valencia at right back.  The game played out in a familiar manner, with 2 distinctive phases of play.

Phase 1 – Aggressive Attacking

Our main strategy was to maximise the colossal threat of Fellaini, playing a more direct game perhaps in response to United’s central defensive injury crisis. The Belgian was immense; as we noted last season our goals output goes up 50% in the games he plays in an advanced role to those he plays as a defensive midfielder. The Belgian received the ball 28 times in the final third last night with 49 touches in the final third which was more than any player from either side.

His aerial prowess was crucial and in a more than deliberate tactic we looked to bypass Vidic and get the ball forward to Fellaini who was looking to pull onto the back of United’s fullbacks to win diagonal balls from Howard and Baines. This perhaps doesn’t do Fellaini justice – his chest control for example is better than anyone in the Premier League by a distance. He made plenty of gains and United couldn’t handle his physical prowess as the game developed. Firstly he outmuscled Valencia and rolled Carrick to hit the post, and then he provided a knock down for Osman to strike the bar.

It was third time unlucky for United though; Fellaini again dominated Carrick (the hapless stand-in centre back won just 28% of his aerial duels) as the curly haired dynamo shrugged off his attention to arrow home a great Darron Gibson centre to send Goodison into raptures.

Phase 2 – Containment

With the goal in the bag ‘Operation Goodison’ shutdown commenced. United dominated possession, moving from 64% control in the first half to 69% in the second. This is nothing new for us though. For example, the wins against Man City, Chelsea, Spurs & Swansea last season were achieved with an average possession of just 35% with Moyes happy to retreat 10 yards, concede possession and get as many men behind the ball as possible.

Whilst United dominated possession (692 v 308 passes), they were less incisive getting the ball into the box and creating threatening chances. The Blues had significantly less touches (571 v 933) but crucially we had more touches in United ‘s penalty box than they did ours (42 v 27) with us having 22% of our chances in their 6 yard box compared to United’s 0% in ours. The below image shows this nicely with United’s passing meeting a brick wall around our penalty box…..

With the centre of the pitch congested United were attacking down the flanks rather than utilise Kagawa through the middle with an emphasis on crossing which we were happy with given our organisation and prowess in defending such situations. United’s crossing accuracy was poor with just 17% accuracy, half the figure we chalked up. Van Persie’s introduction on the right side had limited rewards and he cut something of a peripheral figure as United continued to chase the game with minimal gains.

Jagielka’s display in the defensive phase was crucial; he won a crucial one on one with Welbeck following a great through ball from Kagawa and then foiled United’s best chance of the game, sensing the danger to clear Cleverleys shot of the line. Distin also performed heroically with some crucial headers at the death.

In Summary….

This was a classic Everton display of recent times and was very much an extension of what happened from January onwards last season at Goodison. On this form Fellaini is unplayable and his aggression combined with our ability to win the second balls around him were crucial in the attacking phase of play. Defensively we are resolute – Goodison is a real fortress with 7 clean sheets in our last 10 games at home – and in truth we never looked like conceding with United creating little from their large share of possession. In summary, this was a well deserved victory and a great start to the campaign.

Rodwell will get his 3R's (recuperation, recovery & rest) if he is injured which he will not at Goodison Park because of limited resources. It's a  a career enhancing move. See already he is a starter displacing a WC Dutch player to the bench.  

City can afford Fellaini, can Moyes afford to let his marquee player go? Already Fellaini fellained and stuffed the daylights out of MU team. 

All football cognoscenti can attest that Everton was the superior team over MU. Only plastics (blinded by smokes and mirrors) or retards (by dint of sheer arrogance) can't accept it. 

Marriner did a decent job. He should have sent Scholes off for his bad tackling and fouls from behind.

All Hail Toffee's New Dunc
At 1.94m; Fellaini is big; + his hairdo is bigger than big mama...

actually 2 meter height.. if you include the hair..   

3-0 first half...
pienaar,fellaini and jelavic...

next game vs WBA... both side strong start...
our neighbor redhalf will play arsenal...do or die for both..
bluemerseyside is leading by 5 pts....

---------------------Mucha---------------------

----Coleman--Heitinga--Duffy--Garbutt----

-----Naismith--Barkley--Junior--Gueye-----

-----------Anichebe-------Mirallas-----------

tonite my frens..dont forget

hopefully got live.. last nite, salah tgk schedule.end up watching Nott Forest vs Wigan.. damn!!!

EVERTON 5-0 Leyton Orient
Summer signing Kevin Mirallas marked his home debut with the opening goal following a clever Steven Naismith pass, before setting up Leon Osman to make it 2-0.
Mirallas added his second, with Victor Anichebe rifling in a fourth from distance to utterly crush the Londoners. Magaye Gueye's fifth in the second half completed the rout and booked Everton's place in the next round.
The Blues handed Belgian summer signing Mirallas a start and he operated in a free role just off Anichebe.

everton, swansea, and westbrom as well as fulham has impressed me so far.. look out for these teams! EVERTONNNN

whos watching chelski vs atletico?? tonite mangg....

tonite i predict a 3-0 win..

funnily enuf no club come & kacau fellaini during transfer windows.     

How is Fellaini playing today?

As promised yesterday, RVP scored a hat trick today     
I am really good at prediction

huh!! rugi tak letak kapten..