Everton - 1 Southampton - 0: At some stage reality will sink in for those Evertonians agog at the sight of their team perched near the pinnacle. For now, however, the rhythmic clunk of jaws dropping across Merseyside merely continues.

The notion that this game's most instrumental performer, Thomas Gravesen, may have to be sold during the transfer window with his contract running dangerously towards conclusion was dismissed by David Moyes. In the past the practicalities of debts nearing £40 million would have demanded a cut-price sale. "But we don't need money now," said the Scot. Cue the syncopated sound of disbelief.

It is a matter of months since a statement from an Everton manager even hinting at the club's financial security would have prompted merciful calls for the men in white coats to cart him away, but times are changing in these parts. Gritty but deserved success against Southampton on Saturday, eked out with Leon Osman's turn and finish two minutes from time when infuriating stalemate beckoned, provided a sixth Premiership win of the season. They managed only nine in the whole of last term.

Just as astonishingly, there is money to spend, primarily from the sale of Wayne Rooney - his name is chuckled along Gwladys Street with Manchester United gasping in Everton's vapour trail - but also from the long-proposed and now almost completed investment package put forward by the Fortress Sports Fund.

Formal contract talks have yet to take place with Gravesen, and bids of around £750,000 would normally have forced Everton's hand during the transfer window. Not this time around.

"I don't think anything will happen in January because we have no intentions of letting Thomas go," said Moyes, who watched the Dane batter relentlessly through the centre here. It was Gravesen's long throw, flicked on by Duncan Ferguson, which set up Osman's decisive goal.

Where Everton still confound the natural order, Southampton are conforming. Stripped of confidence and their first-choice front-line, they laboured to squeeze a point from this fixture and returned south with nothing.

Leon Best and Dexter Blackstock were willing workers but lacked the bite of the crocked James Beattie, Marian Pahars or Kevin Phillips. For all that Neil McCann was a nuisance down the left flank, the Saints' reality is grim. They will be relieved that Beattie and Phillips should be back within three weeks.