Everton ride waves of chaos but Patrick Vieira pitch invader clash mars celebrations - The Warm-Up

FRIDAY'S BIG STORIES Never In Doubt Ad/> When Frank Lampard took over, Everton were 16th in the table. As of last night's win over Crystal Palace, they are 16th. Still, life's about the journey, not the destination, and having taking the scenic route into and out of the relegation zone, you can understand why Goodison Park sounded so frantically relieved.

FootballVieira involved in altercation with fan during pitch invasion at EvertonAN HOUR AGO The story of Everton's season has been a talented squad coalescing into something far beneath the sum of its parts. Players in good teams multiply one another's talents; at Goodison, and particularly on the road, Everton's players have been busily subtracting and dividing. Which isn't to say that this is just the players' fault.

There's plenty of blame to go around: dressing room, dugout, boardroom, scouting department. This season, Everton have flirted with a total system collapse. And never more so than at half-time last night: 2-0 down against a team that are doing the thing that Everton should be doing, and doing it right.

Palace play attractive football under an exciting new manager, and have managed both a safe midtable finish and a decent cup run. It almost felt like the footballing gods were trying to make some kind of point. Still, if the capricious forces that rule this game love one thing more than humbling the once mighty, it's chaos.

We don't know what Lampard said at half-time, although we do know it probably started with a serious point, went into a joke, then switched back into a serious point. «Go out there and throw yourself on the mercy of the universe, lads. Hopefully it won't throw you back.» Pause, grin.