A point gained, or two lost? That's the question that Everton's players were left with following Saturday's 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in north London (Sep 12), even as away supporters understandably refused to look a gift horse in the mouth.
After all, the last time the Toffees beat Spurs away in the league was back in the dark days of the autumn lockdown in 2020, when a grand total of zero fans were in attendance to witness Dominic Calvert-Lewin's header for the only goal of the game.
In fact, you have to go back to 2008 for the last time Everton beat Spurs away with fans in the ground. Last season, a generationally bad Spurs team somehow managed to do the double over the Blues, but David Moyes was in no mood for celebrations after the final whistle this time.
"Was I happy with the performance?" Moyes asked in his post-match press conference. "Not really, no. I wanted much more from the team, but I told them about coming here - we've not had a great record here.
"It was only a couple months ago we stopped getting to Europe, probably, by not winning here as well so I generally felt that we had to come in and show a bit more, we had to be resilient and tough. Tottenham were so good for 20 minutes.
"They put us under so much pressure and we found it difficult to escape from it. But look, we were worthy, we made a couple of chances, but we didn't play well enough today when we had the ball. We gave it away, turned it over more often than we have done recently."
Everton certainly came under the cosh at times, but arguably created the better chances against a Spurs team who are yet to score a league goal this season. Wasteful finishing may have cost the Blues, but there is still plenty to take away from a performance that showed yet more glimpses of what the future could look like for Moyes' resilient side.
New right side taking shape
If there is one element of Everton's performances this season that has been unerringly consistent, it has been their left-sided players - and Moyes' tendency to set the Blues up to get the ball down that side of the pitch as often as possible.
With Tyrique George's sparkling early-season form and Vitalii Mykolenko's increasing importance to Everton's build-up, it came as no surprise that we saw more of the same on Saturday.
Not only were the triumvirate of George, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry linking up again, but the Blues became even more left-sided when Jack Grealish entered the fray in the 66th minute, sending 48.3% of their attacks up that side of the pitch in the second half.
A more even 33.0% of Everton's attacks were directed up the right side, but it was here that we started to see more of what the Toffees will look like longer-term with summer exit Iliman Ndiaye no longer in the side.
Everton's new No. 2, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, may have already announced himself with a sensational last-minute equaliser against Manchester United, but Brennan Johnson is still waiting for his moment.
He passed up a golden opportunity when Dewsbury-Hall cut the ball back to him on the edge of the area in the 75th minute, but this was an improved performance from Johnson and hopefully a sign that things are beginning to move in the right direction after failing to catch the eye in his previous minutes to date.
No Everton player attempted more crosses (five) than the Welshman, who also created the most chances (two) for his new club on an afternoon when the Blues spent most of the game defending.
With Maitland-Niles pushing up in possession to provide the width as Johnson and George cut inside from the wings, the 25-year-old had plenty to do going back towards his own goal as well, with former Liverpool player Andy Robertson Spurs' main outlet on their left.
Johnson attempted two tackles and won both of them, which will be important as Everton do need to replace the defensive efforts of Ndiaye as well as the Senegalese's quality at the other end.
To this end, Harrison Armstrong played a similar role to the one he played the previous week against Manchester United, covering in the half-space to mixed effect, and mirroring Dewsbury-Hall's position on the opposite side of midfield.
In the first two games of the Premier League season, Dewsbury-Hall played much more as a sole No. 10, spending much of the games against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth close to Barry - almost as a second striker in a 4-4-2/4-2-4.
Since Ndiaye's deadline-day move to Manchester City, though, and James Garner's full return to the fold, Moyes has leaned into the latter's defensive strengths to play Dewsbury-Hall and Armstrong more as advanced 8s, with license to support the wide attacking style the manager prefers.
This plays into Dewsbury-Hall's strengths, who naturally drifts to the left to cross with his stronger foot, and the hope will be that it suits Armstrong, too, as the chemistry between Everton's new-look right side develops.
Against Spurs, he found himself isolated again, making just 33 touches - little more than half of Dewsbury-Hall's 59. With most of the action on the opposite side of the pitch, though - Spurs constantly looking to get Savio on the ball in attack and Everton doing likewise with George - this can hardly be held against the 19-year-old.
Building that chemistry will be key to making Everton more unpredictable.
Blues left to rue missed chances
The Johnson miss may have looked appalling, but was not among Everton's two best chances according to expected goals (xG). Those chances both found the head of Barry in the six-yard box within a four-minute spell at the start of the second half (worth 0.24 xG each), and the Frenchman spurned them both.
It would be easy to chide Barry for what has undeniably been a wastefulness in front of goal in recent games, but that would do a disservice to the progress made by the 23-year-old.
Of course, Barry scored a hat-trick against Preston just three weeks ago, which should not be forgotten - and nor should his growing importance to Everton's attack as a whole.
One moment in the second half stood out, when Barry held up the ball beautifully before releasing a perfectly-timed pass to George running into space, and despite the Blues' low block seeing him isolated out of possession, he had no trouble linking up with his teammates when on the ball.
Barry was one of six Everton players to create a chance in this game - a promising sign in itself - and was as competitive as ever. Though he won just 44% of his aerial duels, he contested 13 duels in total, winning two of four on the ground.
And that's all without mentioning the increasingly threatening positions where Barry is receiving the ball. Behind only Savio (11) for touches in the opposition box (six), Barry accumulated 0.67 xG and is only narrowly behind Erling Haaland in second for xG per 90 (among players to have started a Premier League game) ahead of Monday night's game between Leeds and Newcastle.
Yes, goals are the numbers that matter, but there is a reason few strikers match the Norwegian in xG accumulated. Strikers will tell you that the hardest part is getting in the position to score, and Barry is still young enough for his finishing to improve significantly.
Haaland, of course, plays in a high-possession side that has been fine-tuned to manufacture opportunities for him to score. That Barry's situation is entirely different, yet he can be mentioned alongside Haaland in this respect, should be a source of excitement for Toffees.
A big part of how Barry has managed to get so many opportunities to score this season is how effectively Everton have got the ball to their main playmaker, Dewsbury-Hall.
Against Spurs, Dewsbury-Hall was the top pass receiver for four different Everton players: George (six passes), Garner (10), Jarrad Branthwaite (eight) and Barry (three).
Branthwaite's efficiency getting the ball quickly out from the back in this game was impressive and got Everton on the front foot quickly, while a similar direct line between Mykolenko and George (the latter of whom received the most passes - eight - from Mykolenko on the day) is proving equally effective to get the 20-year-old on the ball and linking up with Dewsbury-Hall.
Indeed, no player received the ball from Dewsbury-Hall more than George, the No. 8 finding the No. 19 nine times and constantly looking to release him down the left flank.
The Blues not only had the greater xG on Saturday (1.11 to Spurs' 0.69), but also managed double the number of shots in the second half as they did in the first (from four to eight), all of them inside the box.
Though Moyes bemoaned Everton giving the ball away more often than he would have liked, the Toffees' threat had actually become greater even as they saw less of the ball in the second half (36.4% possession, after seeing 38.7% in the first half).
As Spurs pushed more and more for a goal, Everton only became more dangerous on the break. But that also meant that the Blues' defensive work had to be excellent - and it was.
Garner and Mykolenko immense
It was last year's Player of the Season, Garner, who managed the first shot on target for either side from his free-kick in the 46th minute, and it was Garner who helped knit together defence and attack peerlessly for Everton.
Former Spurs manager Thomas Frank, speaking on Saturday's Match of the Day, spotlighted the immense workload Garner got through - finishing the game top among Everton players for touches (71), duels won (10) and possession won (eight), and second for tackles (six).
Ex-Blues defender Ashley Williams, guesting alongside Frank, put it perfectly: "If you're a centre-back behind him, he's the type of midfielder you want."
Garner also made the second-most passes (51) behind James Tarkowski (57), whose use of the ball was also highly commendable, and covered central areas impeccably.
Despite strong performances from Armstrong and Hayden Hackney in deeper midfield roles already this season, Garner's position in this team is in no doubt whatsoever - and the way he played through the pain to make an early return from a hernia injury at the start of the season underlines the warrior spirit that makes him perfect for Moyes' lynchpin role.
Of course, there was one player in Blue who made more tackles than Garner: the tireless Mykolenko. The Ukrainian international, incredibly, attempted seven tackles and succeeded with all seven of them - despite having his work cut out against a rampaging Savio.
The footballer formerly known as Savinho was Spurs' most advanced attacker on the day, and - as touched on before - the Brazilian made 11 touches in Everton's box, the most of any player on the pitch by far.
One of the weirdest aspects of this inescapably weird match was that, despite directly competing against each other, both Savio and Mykolenko had excellent games.
Only Robertson matched Savio for crosses (seven), with the 22-year-old also creating a match-high four chances for his team and attempting a whopping eight dribbles.
Accusations of a lack of end product have long plagued the former Manchester City player, but it was his teammates against Everton who should have been cursing their wastefulness.
Mykolenko was dribbled past on three occasions (Fotmob), but recovered well time after time and had the edge in his duels with Savio, winning a greater share of his 14 duels (57.1%) than the winger he was up against (42.9%).
Mykolenko and Garner, central to the Blues' work in build-up and in defence, were absolutely instrumental both on and off the ball.
A good point... for now
As frustrating as it may have been not to strike a killing blow against a Spurs side still struggling to escape their own death spiral, this has to go down as a good point for the Toffees.
Everton defenders will face few greater challenges than Mykolenko did up against Savio on Saturday, and to emerge from a difficult away game with a draw and a clean sheet is a testament to the defiance this team are showing so far this season.
The Blues are unbeaten so far, but that record will look less impressive should they fail to dispatch Ipswich at Hill Dickinson this coming weekend. Wins in the two coming home games against Wolves in the League Cup and then the Tractor Boys in the Premier League, though, and this will be looked back on as a start to the season Everton can be proud of.
With a three-week international break on the horizon, leaving things on a high is essential.