Luka Modric’s ‘avin a party, bring your Kranjcar and your Charlie!

Massive result today, and a wonderful first half performance – possibly our best half of football in 2010.

At the heart of that was Modric – he has struggled to get back to his earlier form since returning from the broken leg inflicted by Lee Bowyer, but today he was magical at times. What I like about him most is that he seems to make the right decisions 90% of the time – whether it’s to pass early, to wriggle out of a tight situation, or to go on a mazy dribble.

And that goal. Wow. I think that was probably the only way that he could have scored from there, and he executed it perfectly.

One thing that will certainly help Modric get back to his best is Gareth Bale’s incredible form. I don’t think there’s another player in England that has his pace and power when pushing on from left-back, and his final ball is consistently dangerous. Modric and Bale are starting to form a great little partnership there – the one thing we need to watch, however, is who fills in at left-back when Modric is drifting, and Bale is caught upfield.

I was delighted to see Kaboul dropping in there on 91 minutes today, and making a vital challenge to win the ball. We need more of this type of responsibility from our regular midfield players.

All in all, we rode our luck today (the Donovan chance was a one in a hundred miss), but it makes up for the points that we were denied at Goodison Park.

Analysis of the goal conceded to follow later.

Edit: Luka’s goal, for anyone who hasn’t seen it.