James Garner in action for Everton, with Stuart Pearce in a circular frame inset
James Garner in action for Everton, with Stuart Pearce in a circular frame inset
James Garner had a moment to forget during Everton's defeat to Chelsea on Saturday afternoon.
The Toffees' unbeaten start to the campaign came to an end with a 2-0 loss at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Pedro Neto scored early in the second period, after a fiery but goalless first half, and again late on.
Garner retained his place in David Moyes' starting line-up, which showed two changes - Vitalii Mykolenko and Merlin Rohl coming in - from the draw at Hull City last week.
The midfielder did not have a bad game by any means, but nor could he make a telling impact.
And former England international Pearce blasted Garner after what he saw in the first half.
James Garner moment frustrates vs Chelsea
Everton and Chelsea both had a good chance to take the lead in the first half.
That was between what seemed like a foul every 10 seconds or so as the two sides came to blows multiple times.
Everton had a chance to put some pressure on Chelsea when winning a free-kick through Moises Caicedo's challenge on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Garner stood over the free-kick from the right but horribly hit it straight over Emiliano Martinez's crossbar for a goal-kick.
That led to plenty of groans around Hill Dickinson Stadium, with Pearce commenting live on talkSPORT: "That's an awful free-kick. It's very frustrating."
That moment pretty much summed up Garner's output in an attacking sense for Everton.
How did Garner perform overall vs Chelsea?
Garner impressed with his passing accuracy with Chelsea, as his 92.2 per cent success rate was the best of any home starter.
The 64 touches he registered, meanwhile, was bettered only by James Tarkowski (67) and Mykolenko (81).
Defensively, he recorded one tackle, one interception and one clearance.
But he did not offer a great deal in attack, with no key passes, no shots and no dribbles.
A pretty mixed afternoon, then, with that poor free-kick something that will certainly stick in Pearce's mind.