City misfit Jo hits ground running at Everton

David Moyes has predicted that Jo could reach double figures in his loan spell at Everton.

The Brazilian has been a major disappointment since his 18-million-pound move from CSKA Moscow to Manchester City last summer.

He managed just one Premier League goal for the Eastlands club and Mark Hughes has allowed him to spend the second half of the season at Goodison Park.

But Jo earned a penalty, scored a fine goal that showed all of his qualities and then scored from the spot himself as he made his debut in the 3-0 win over Bolton.

Moyes tracked the forward, 21, during his spell in Russia and admits he was surprised at his lack of impact since moving to England.

The Blues manager would have preferred to have eased Jo into his starting line-up but had no choice but to throw him straight in due to injuries to Aiyegbeni Yakubu, Louis Saha and James Vaughan.

But the Scot is sure that City’s loss is likely to be Everton’s gain as he looks to bolster the Blues’ push for European football next season.

He said: “I need to regain his confidence and I didn’t want to put him in the team so quickly but we just had no other options.

“Hopefully that’ll give him a big lift.

“He could be vital to us if he can get us goals. He’s got two today and if he can get us 10 goals it would be great for us.

“I’ve not seen that form from him at Manchester City but I’m not surprised because I saw it at CSKA and when he went there in the summer I thought they’d signed a really top player and he would go on to prove that.

“He’s 21 and the biggest thing was that the players were fantastic with him.

“They wanted to make it easy for him and for him to do well. You saw how much they celebrated when he scored his goal because they want to make him part of it and know he can be important to us.”

Bolton are still four points above the relegation zone but their manager Gary Megson admits that performances like the loss at Everton will see them relegated this season.

The lack of options available for Megson led to him only being able to name six substitutes, and now only West Brom have lost more Premier League matches this season.

Megson said: “That was a complete waste of 90 minutes, a complete waste of people being paid a week’s wages, a complete waste of time.

“We were just shocking. Sometimes you try to get away from it but you can’t defend the indefensible.

“The players get paid for 38 games a season and that’s 37 games we’re going to play at most.

“We’ve got three home games out of the next four in the Premier League but if we continue to play like that, we’ll get relegated without a shadow of a doubt.

“That just is not acceptable but if we get after it like we normally do then we’ll be fine.”

Bolton had arrived at Goodison high on confidence in the wake of their thrilling home victory over Tottenham last weekend.

But they were on the backfoot from the outset and only a Tim Cahill miss from two yards out prevented them going behind as early as the third minute.

That finally happened five minutes before the break, when Andy O’Brien’s clumsy trip on Jo enabled Mikel Arteta to convert from the spot.

Four minutes after the restart, Jo produced a sublime piece of skill to gather Phil Neville’s lofted cross before planting a volley past Jussi Jaaskelainen. Everton’s total dominance was confirmed by Jo at the death after Mark Davies had handled Gosling’s cross.