The manager was pleased, however, to see his players embrace that challenge and come away with a well-fought draw which moves them nine points clear of their opponents in the Premier League drop zone.
“It was the sort of tough game we expected it to be,” Hodgson noted. “We know that Everton are very well-drilled and have a clear plan of the way they want to play.
“We knew that was going to ask a lot of questions of us, especially on the balls played long towards our back four. Our midfield had to do well and get into good positions to deal with some of the knockdowns.
“It did make the game, for long periods, something of a war of attrition, but I’m pleased with how the players dealt with it because it’s so easy, after all of the nice things that have been said about the players, to not want to play that game, and lose it because you start doing things that aren’t possible.
“If you’re going to have a good Premier League season, you’ve got to have all sorts of types of games. This was a very different type to our last three, but it gave me satisfaction to come away with a clean sheet, not losing, because on another occasion I can see moments where we could have lost games like this in the past.
“You don’t always get to play the sort of games we’ve been able to on the last three occasions, where there have been lots of opportunities on the counter, and to get our foot on the ball and pass it around.
“There are days, unfortunately, where the opposition don’t give you the opportunity to do that, so then you’ve got to make certain you see out the danger from the opponents and do the best you can creating opportunities. We did well seeing out the danger from a very dangerous Everton team.
“On another day, it could have gone a slightly better way for us – but I’m still satisfied that it’s four games now without defeat, that it’s 10 points from those four games, and we’ve still got six games to get ourselves up into an even better position between now and the end of the season.”
