Everton were attacking John Ruddy's goal from the off and there was almost an early goal from Osman, who tried to fire in a loose ball picked up for him by Naismith, curling it just inches wide of the far post. Pienaar bashed his knee challenging for the ball inside 5 minutes, giving concern of yet another injury for David Moyes to deal with.
Jagielka put in a very smart cross from nothing that Jelavic didn't seem to jump for and the chance went begging. Hitzlsperger floated a good ball forward that Ovideo did brilliantly with controlling it perfectly and placing it back on a plate for Naismith who smashed it home for a nice early goal after 12 minutes.
A great move and a brilliant one-two with Pienaar saw Baines into the area and firing on John Ruddy, who got down well to save. Naismith then went down in the corner of the area to the requisite shout: nothing from referee Mike Jones. In Gibson's absence, Hitzlsperger was an increasingly dominant calming influence in midfield. Baines curled in a great cross for Jelavic but he was edged off it a little too easily.
Holt managed to beat three Everton defenders than thankfully fluffed his shot badly and failed to threaten Howard when all alone. Oviedo then picked out Naismith with a superb ball forward from midfield, but Jelavic was offside for the final ball as Norwich started to see a lot more of the ball.
Some good work from Osman ended up with him shooting straight at John Ruddy with Oviedo really catching the eye. Everton won their first corner on 36 mins, Hitzlsperger swinging it in well but Jelavic headed wide as the ref predictably blew for a foul amongst the crazy jostling. The pace dropped and Norwich won their first corner that Bassong came very close to converting.
Pienaar and Osman combined nicely but, with the goal gaping, Osman produced one of his classic powder-puff passes straight into the arms of John Ruddy.
After the break, and Mike Jones gave Norwich a dubious free kick that was defended away before Tettey lashed it well over. It was terribly scrappy and disjointed fare, with Jones giving Norwich every opportunity, a Pilkington free-kick nearly catching out Howard.
It was rubbish football allround, Howard needed to be alert for a ball over the top when Holt beat the offside trap. Baines raised the standard with an excellent delivery no-one could finish it off. Past the hour mark and Everton finally got a corner but the officiating was poor, both in controlling the 6-yard scrum, blatant encroachment, and a deflected Jelavic shot wrongly called as a goal-kick.
It was just as scrappy in the Everton area, the ball could have gone anywhere as the game went from bad to worse with Grant Holt the villain of the piece, but it was Johnson who earnt the first yellow for a foul on Oviedo. Everton were very vulnerable as Norwich again came close, Snodgrass beating Howard but not the four blue shirts back defending the goalline.
At the other end, some better work ended in Pienaar lofting the ball to no-one — where the hell was Jelavic? Some absolutely dire football on show but Oviedio was trying to raise the stakes with a low shot on Ruddy. But Everton's weak link was Pienaar, who had gotten worse and worse. But Baines did superbly to run through and lash in a shot on Ruddy.
Osman was next to make progress and play it in to where Jelavic should have been waiting... but again he was dawdling around 5 yards back instead of lurking in the danger area. Ruddy was then forced off with a knee or groin problem, to be replaced for the last 10 mins by Mark Bunn.
The game was summed up when Naismith and Jelavic got behind the Norwich defence and all Naismith had to do was square it to his pal Jelavic, who this time was up with the play... Naismith's ball was absolutely atrocious. While at the other end, Howard again had to produce the goods as the last line of defence from a determined header.
Oveido was fouled on the edge of the area. Tettey was finally booked for blatant encroachment (what happened to that 10-yard rule???). Baines finally curled in a decent shot that was just a foot over.
Norwich got the softest of free-kicks when Morison missed his kick. It was delivered very deep to the far post were Bassong did very well to power the ball through Howard, who had hesitated and gone back to his line instead of plucking the ball out of the air. The goal had been coming all second half, and Moyes's bizarre reaction was to swap Naismith for Vellios with two of the four extra minutes already gone.
Some games are tremendous adverts for the Premier League... this was anything but. Another 2 points squandered by the bumbling Blues.
Everton: Howard; Jagielka, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Oviedo, Hitzlsperger, Osman, Pienaar; Naismith (90+2' Vellios); Jelavic. Subs not Used: Mucha, Duffy, Hibbert, Gueye, Barkley, Kennedy.
Norwich: Ruddy (82' Bunn), Whittaker, Bassong, Ryan Bennett, Garrido (Y:87'), Johnson, Tettey, Snodgrass (89' Jackson, Hoolahan (75' Morison), Pilkington, Holt. Subs not Used: Howson, Elliott Bennett, Barnett, Tierney
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