Everton’s poor form continued with a late defeat at the hands of Watford.

Tom Davies made his 50th Premier League appearance for the Blues and was involved in a midfield battle between the sides at Vicarage Road.

It took until the 79th minute for the Hornets to find a breakthrough with Troy Deeney grabbing his first goal from open play since April last year.

Here were the key talking points from the ‘Z-Cars derby’:

Sigurdsson and Davies are missing links

 

Everton’s midfield has been beset by compromise in the past few games, with Sam Allardyce reluctant to start Tom Davies and Gylfi Sigurdsson together.

A derided performance against Arsenal earlier this month ensured that the former England manager would set up differently at Vicarage Road.

Hurrying and harassing the hosts’ backline throughout, they showed as a pair the kind momentum and forward-thinking play which has been sorely lacking of late.

When given the opportunity to play deeper into the opposition half, Davies in particular already demonstrated signs of a composed and gifted playmaker.

Much like Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish, the academy graduate often proves a catalyst for most of the positive counter-attack and pairs up nicely with Sigurdsson.

He is also not afraid to track back and tackle either, and in the first half managed to curtail several Watford counter-attacks.

With Sigurdsson drifting in and out from the left of midfield in this one as well, Davies often providing some good interplay with his teammate.

It is a pairing that needs to be seen on a far more regular basis.

Rooney offers a real midfield presence

 

With Morgan Schneiderlin and Idrissa Gueye both fairly non-existent in recent weeks, Wayne Rooney’s midfield experiment is a welcome change.

He partnered Gueye fairly well to allow the Senegalese enforcer, recently signing a new five-year deal, to enjoy one of his better games of late.

Though substituted near the end of the game for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Rooney endured a promising start to his newly-acquired position.

He is no stranger to the deeper role, of course, having played there at Manchester United to provide composure and a creative vigour going forward.

Still, Davy Klaassen must be feeling homesick after again being overlooked.

Tosun overlook is a mystery

 

Why would you leave a striker with Champions League experience on the bench?

Cenk Tosun will be asking the same question as everyone else as his £27 million move from Besiktas continues to pose more questions than answers.

Those questions should not denegrate from Oumar Niasse’s performances since being handed the chance to lead the line in the past few months.

However it feels time for Tosun to now get a proper starting berth, particularly considering the lack of clear-cut opportunities created here.

He offered some of the physicality and presence which was visibly lacking in the first 45 minutes.

Had he been on the pitch longer, the scoreline may have been very different.

Blues travel sickness on the turn?

 

A win for Everton was vital in this one and this defeat will no doubt be of great concern for the manager going into the business end of the season.

However it can be said that it was all doom and gloom and but for a strong Watford defence, this proved one of the better battles in recent weeks.

Goals are where it is proving difficult at the moment for the Toffees and having shipped six goals in the last two Premier League games, it is starting to look fairly dicey in the bottom half of the Premier League.

Allardyce will be hoping Tosun begins to start getting acclimatised to the English game as a goalscoring talisman is in dire need.

If Sigurdsson can begin to add the goals and assists that saved Swansea time and again last season, then the Toffees will have nothing to worry about.