It seems that the Everton bubble has now well and truly burst under David Moyes.
Only one meagre win has been picked up in the Premier League by the Toffees across their last five contests in the demanding division, with Tottenham Hotspur applying a lot more salt to the Merseyside outfit's wound when humbling them 3-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday evening.
Beto-1
Micky van de Ven's quickfire double would kill the contest in the first half, before Pape Matar Sarr made sure of the three points when his late effort beat Jordan Pickford.
Unfortunately for Everton, Beto forgot to pack his shooting boots again, leading the line for his out-of-form side, with the number nine cutting an isolated figure once more.
Why Beto may be dropped
To his credit, he did try to acrobatically beat Guglielmo Vicario in the second half after a quick run forward by Iliman Ndiaye found him in space. Unfortunately, as is his luck at the moment, the Italian pulled off a jaw-dropping save to preserve his clean sheet.
That means the ex-Udinese attacker's goalless run of form in the Premier League now stretches to six straight matches, with this audacious effort on goal his only real memorable contribution during the 3-0 defeat.
Beto-Everton-Premier-League
Indeed, Beto would only amass 14 touches of the ball during his 66-minute stint on the pitch, with the aforementioned Pickford even coming in with more, having tallied up a far greater 36 come the full-time whistle.
Even when the ball was at his feet, he did very little with it, with just four accurate passes accumulated, away from the imposing 6-foot-4 attacker, also only winning two of the six duels he went in for, as he let his side down aerially.
Van De Ven would have no trouble in the air; on the other hand, as his two headers sealed all three points for Thomas Frank's very effective visitors.
While the commanding Dutchman stood out as a major positive both in attack and in defence for Spurs, Everton looked regularly ropey themselves when push came to shove defensively, with this underperformer at the back now fearing for his first-team spot, alongside a goal-shy Beto.
Vitaly-Mykolenko
The 4/10 Everton flop who must now be dropped
It will certainly worry Moyes in the Toffees dug-out that his side haven't kept a clean sheet in league action since facing off against Aston Villa in the middle of September.
To try and remedy his team's ongoing defensive issues, the Glaswegian could be prepared to drop Vitaliy Mykolenko, who endured another torrid evening in the Premier League against Frank's rampant away side.
Mykolenko's performance in numbers
Stat
Minutes played
Goals scored
Assists
Touches
Accurate passes
Accurate crosses
Successful dribbles
Possession lost
Tackles won
Clearances
Ball recoveries
Total duels won
Dribbled past
Stats by Sofascore
The more you read into the table above, the more damning Mykolenko's poor day at the office becomes, with the Ukrainian full-back failing to register a single accurate cross, a single successful dribble, or a single successful tackle won across his disastrous 90 minutes.
To pile on the misery even more, the out-of-sorts number 16 also managed to lose possession a costly 19 times down the left flank across the entire duration of the 3-0 loss, while only 30% of his duels were also won. Safe to say, he won't be looking back on his sixth Premier League start of the season with much glee.
Mykolenko
Moyes could well have seen enough to be convinced to drop his 4/10 defender - as was the low post-match rating handed to him by Liverpool World's Will Rooney - for Everton's next league contest versus the top-flight's biggest surprise package of the season so far in Sunderland, with the adaptable James Garner a potential candidate who could replace him, alongside summer recruit Adam Aznou.
It's clear from Everton's overall showing that things have become alarmingly stagnant and quick, as Moyes looked dejected when speaking to the media after the game.
He will surely be hoping for a much-improved performance from his downtrodden team at the Stadium of Light at the start of next month, as Beto and Mykolenko are both potentially moved out of his starting XI plans.