The ease with which Walter Smith has taken to life south of the border is such that only in those dark moments engendered by undiluted anger does the Glaswegian within him break surface to cut a swathe through the pompous posturing which serves to ensure that Premiership football continues to enjoy a veneer of culture it does not warrant.
After Saturday's match, the Everton manager was applying an admirably straight bat to a series of questions which, it seemed, were designed to help ease him through the trauma of seeing his side reserve their latest act of self-mutilation for the dying seconds of a game they should have won with ease.
It was all going swimmingly until it was suggested that he should take some form of solace from the fact that Everton have still to lose a League fixture at Goodison Park this season.
"That's shite," he muttered before intelligently pointing out that if his team is to make the progress he demands opponents like Chelsea must not be merely equalled but bettered.
"We have drawn here against Manchester United, Leeds United and now Chelsea," he said. "If we are going to move on, we must start winning these games."
Smith is not moved to indulge in meaningless, vacuous psychobabble. Sadly, Chelsea's Gianluca Vialli was not quite so discerning on Saturday. Vialli talked of spirit, of resilience, of character, when he should have been talking of highly-paid international footballers playing like children, when he should have been slaughtering Frank Leboeuf for his pointless dismissal for two cautions, and when he should have been berating his team for its collective clumsiness.
"I think we will be up near the top of the table in a month or two," he insisted.
Their thoughts possibly already turning towards Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Feyenoord, Chelsea were wretched.
Until deep into stoppage time it had seemed inevitable that Kevin Campbell's smartly-taken early goal would condemn Chelsea to defeat. But an afternoon of largely unfulfilled potential was to yield a shattering denouement when Tore Andre Flo swept home low and hard after Everton defenders had converged from all parts of the pitch to make a fine mess of things.
EVERTON: Gerrard, Unsworth, Gough, Dunne, Cleland, Barmby, Hutchison, Pembridge, Xavier, Jeffers, Campbell. Subs Not Used: Ball, Collins, Gemmill, Grant, Simonsen. Booked: Hutchison, Pembridge. Goals: Campbell 15.
CHELSEA: De Goey, Babayaro, Desailly, Leboeuf, Ferrer (Hogh 81), Ambrosetti (Di Matteo 2), Deschamps, Morris, Petrescu (Zola 51), Flo, Sutton. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Harley. Sent Off: Leboeuf (56). Booked: Sutton, Leboeuf, Ferrer. Goals: Flo 90.
Referee: M Halsey (Welwyn Garden City).
