We’ve been here before, haven’t we? In more ways than one.

David Moyes’ record away at the big six has long been the stuff of legend, and not at all in the way Everton fans would want. In the build-up to the weekend’s trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal, I laid out exactly why that record – a meagre, or dismal if you prefer, eleven wins in 122 visits to those grounds – was a flaw Moyes simply had to address, and why every warning sign pointed to another painful afternoon. Everton duly made it eleven in 123 on Saturday, in the most grimly predictable fashion imaginable.

It must be noted that this isn’t a reactionary rant, nor the start of a “Moyes Out” drive. There’s no satisfaction in being proved right about this one – it’s a simple recognition of one of Moyes’ blindingly obvious flaws that seemingly everyone but himself can identify.

The Same Meek Surrender

It is very difficult to win at these grounds – we all know that. But as a bare minimum you have to learn, adapt, try new things, try to upset the apple cart, bring something new to the table. Whereas Moyes seems to be operating on the logic of “well, it hasn’t worked hundreds of times before, so it must be due to work now”.

This goes beyond just a loss at the hands of one of football’s giants – that happens, and it happens regularly. This is Evertonians seeing the same meek, lifeless and, truth be told, pointless surrender on repeat, to the level that it has almost become farcical.

The recipe is pretty simple by now. Go to one of these grounds, show an admittedly excellent side far too much respect, play like an FA Cup minnow from the early 2000s trying to nick a heroic 1-0 win, fail to lay a glove on a team playing at half pace, inevitably lose by two or three, and then come out afterwards and admit we should have been more aggressive. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One Positive, and That Was It

Let’s start with the positives from the weekend’s display. Tyrique George looked somewhat lively in the first 25 minutes. And that brings us to the end of the positives.

The Toffees have a dangerously thin squad, are low on confidence after a two-game winless run and don’t have a wealth of quality in the ranks – we know all this. But that doesn’t excuse an inferior approach that bordered on grovelling. In the Premier League nowadays, the approach a manager instils in his troops is almost as important as the personnel he has.

Brighton Show the Way

Brighton were the side I kept pointing to before kickoff, and they made the point for me all over again this weekend. They hardly have top-class individuals – Diego Gomez, Charalampos Kostoulas and Pascal Gross are not world beaters, far from it – and yet they sit third in the table, have demolished Arsenal already this season, and took the game to Liverpool at Anfield before being very unlucky to lose 2-0.

Yes, we both lost by two goals at a big ground, but the approach lends itself to different futures. If the Seagulls play that way at Anfield ten more times, they don’t lose another ten. If the Blues do what they did at the Emirates Stadium another thousand times, they lose each and every one.

Not Gung-Ho, Just Different

No one is suggesting that we try to turn into prime Barcelona and outplay the Gunners with a reckless gung-ho approach. The diagnosis of this problem isn’t to go so far to the opposite end of the spectrum that we just give ourselves an opposing problem. But part of the solution is surely adapting the approach and trying something new?

Sitting back, not believing at all in an attacking system, and living on a wing and a prayer and a chance in a million to steal a 1-0 victory at these grounds means the suffering travelling fans are seeing the same glum story play out every couple of weeks when visits to these big grounds come up in the diary.

When Will He Learn?

We keep suffering the same unhappy ending because Moyes is unwilling to change any of the words in the story. It might take a while for a fairytale ending to emerge somewhere along the line, but long-suffering supporters would be grateful if we at least tried to take the first step on the ladder.

But the same ominous feeling remains – if Moyes hasn’t learnt by now, then when will he?