THE more depleted the team, the more effective Everton become. Having finessed half a season without a proper centre-forward, manager David Moyes yesterday had to plug the gap left by the injured Mikel Arteta, by a distance his club’s most artful player.

The ambling Marouane Fellaini took on the role initially, to a mixed reception from the home fans, but Everton’s dogged pursuit of the leaders continued without any noticeable hitch, Arteta or no Arteta.

“My job as a coach is to find a way of winning,” said Moyes. “But I also want to improve the way we play. We haven’t got another artist like Mikel, so we needed to find a way of doing it. We needed to have a look today.”

This is a real test of a manager’s skill, and Moyes has passed it with impressive ease. Shorn of the services of most of his strike force for a critical part of the season, he pressed the admirable Tim Cahill into the breach as a lone striker and has conjured some precious goals out of Fellaini, who has yet to settle into the pace of the Premier League.

Now that Arteta is out for the season, the manager has been forced to patch up his midfield, yet still Everton keep chugging along, well-organised, industrious and with just enough flair to keep the goals coming.

All of which prompts a question about Moyes’s ambition and his coaching philosophy — one asked, obliquely, by his opposite number, Tony Mowbray, yesterday.

Moyes’s teams are stamped with a workmanlike authority, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that, if and when Sir Alex Ferguson decides to retire, Moyes will be on the shortlist of potential successors. At Old Trafford, though, they demand style and substance, and he has not had the chance yet, either at Preston or Everton, to show what he could do with greater resources.

Moyes did learn swiftly yesterday that Fellaini is not the answer to the Arteta problem, but that the diminutive Leon Osman, who replaced Tony Hibbert after 26 minutes, might well be. Osman managed a passable imitation of the Spaniard without ever quite displaying the same mastery of angle or weight of pass.

There was a familiarity, though, about Everton’s opening goal, a free kick by Leighton Baines met by Cahill’s head just before half-time. Mowbray would have warned his defenders all week about the aerial danger of Cahill. Clearly, none of them was listening, which perhaps explained the frustration of the Albion manager afterwards. “That was a typical day for us,” he said, which was true enough.

Mowbray must be fed up with being told how well his side have played, when what he really needs, as he readily acknowledged, is a few wins, of any calibre. It’s hard to know whether to applaud him for his purist instinct or to berate him for being so pig-headed.

“You’ll never see a scrapping, spitting, fighting, muscular team of mine,” he added defiantly. “You’ll see a passing, moving team, and if we get relegated, we’ll take it on the chin and come back.” They might have to. With fixtures against Arsenal and West Ham next in line, time is starting to run out on the beautiful Baggies.

Everton, Mowbray added, were better at the “other side of the game”, which was a bit harsh on Moyes. The accusation did not ring entirely true anyway. Having established their superiority all over the field, Everton decided to morph into Arsenal for a moment just after half-time, much to the disgust of their manager, who has never been one for unnecessary ornamentation.

Sure enough, no sooner had Jonathan Greening and Luke Moore arrived than Albion began to tick, and although Louis Saha produced the one moment of real class in an otherwise humdrum game, turning and rifling a left-foot shot past Scott Carson from 20 yards, Everton had to rely on Tim Howard’s reflexes and two slices of luck — notably when Phil Jagielka cleared Ryan Donk’s header into Howard’s hands and Moore’s screamer cracked the woodwork — to secure their eighth clean sheet in 11 games in the Premier League.

“Bits of the match were okay,” was Moyes’s verdict afterwards. “Other bits less so. We can play much better than that.”

Rightly, he reserved particular praise for his defence, in which Baines and Jagielka were again outstanding.

Baines had an excellent all-round game yesterday, dominating the left touchline and, in combination with Steven Pienaar, proving a constant threat to the right side of the Albion defence. Baines must surely be close to an England recall, because he has pace, energy and a sweet left foot.

Everton’s uncanny ability to make do and mend speaks volumes for the character of both manager and team. West Bromwich Albion should take note before it’s too late.

Star man: Leighton Baines (Everton)

Yellow cards: Everton: Fellaini West Brom: Greening

Referee: S Bennett

Attendance: 33,898

EVERTON: Howard 6, Hibbert 5 (Osman 26min, 7), Yobo 6, Jagielka 7, Baines 8, Gosling 5, Neville 6, Fellaini 5 (Saha 60min, 6), Pienaar 7, Cahill 6, Jo 4 (Castillo 75min)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION: Carson 5, Zuiverloon 4, Meite 6, Donk 5, Robinson 5, Morrison 7, Koren 5, Borja Valero 4 (Greening 53min, 6), Brunt 5, Simpson 5 (Moore 57min, 6), Fortune 5