EVERTONIANS didn't know where to turn next to dish out standing ovations on Saturday.

There were outstanding performances everywhere they looked, as the Blues celebrated a sixth successive home win in the Premiership for the first time since 1990.

James Beattie didn't score. But the biggest compliment you could pay him is that on Saturday he looked every inch a 'proper' Everton centre-forward.

James McFadden did score - and created two others as he showed once again signs of maturing into a quality Premiership striker - while Mikel Arteta produced another virtuoso display of the midfield arts until a tight hamstring forced him off 10 minutes into the second half.

All three were rightly saluted afterwards.

But the game's real driving force, the man who started - and twice finished - many of Everton's best moves was a player who regularly claimed the headlines last season, but seemed to be suffering second-season syndrome in 2005-06.

Tim Cahill was outstanding, which isn't always a sentence you could utter since his astonishing debut season in the top flight.

Everton's dispensing of a five-man midfield in favour of a more traditional 4-4-2, placed much greater responsibility on the little Aussie's shoulders.

His late bursts into opposition penalty boxes had to be timed more responsibly, he had to learn to hold the ball and dictate play - and he had to learn to thread a pass through for other players.

On Saturday he did all three impeccably.

Twice he arrived with Sekonda timing in the Villa penalty box to rasp the ball past Thomas Sorensen, his all-round midfield generalship was excellent - and the perfectly weighted pass for Mikel Arteta to race after was as much responsible for Leon Osman's goal as the little Spaniard's deceptive change of pace and pass.

But off the field Cahill also showed impressive qualities.

Predictably, he was the man the TV cameras wanted to focus on after his two-goal salvo, but he promptly turned the attention onto James Beattie and demanded the centre-forward be given a place on England's plane to Germany this summer.

As a sign of the squad's growing togetherness and team spirit, it was as persuasive as the work-rate and pressing which had demolished a dangerous looking Villa side before half-time.

The man who started the rout, with another stunning goal, was another player who has come good after a lean spell.

James McFadden is a footballer who has often frustrated since his switch from Motherwell two-and-a-half years ago.

The dashing, dazzling, buccaneering runs which marked his first two appearances against Stockport County and Leeds United were followed up far too often by blind-alley dashes, ineffective afternoons and poor decision making.

The ability was clearly there. But McFadden looked to be running the risk of becoming a latter day John Oster. While Oster's top-flight

career petered out, to be summed up largely by the song Sunderland supporters coined for him (One Johnny Oster, One Johnny Oster . . . he used to be s****, now he's all right!) McFadden knuckled down, never once moaned publicly about being left out and on Saturday even heard his name mentioned in the same sentence as Wayne Rooney by his manager.

The comparison was largely to explain the hype which had accompanied his arrival on the Scottish stage, but there were times on Saturday when he justified a direct link.

It wasn't the only apparently outrageous comparison made on Saturday. There were several observers - Derek Mountfield amongst them - who pointed out the similarities between 1983-84 - the catalyst season for the greatest era in Everton's history - and this current campaign: a wretched first half of the campaign followed by a promising, purposeful second half.

Not even Evertonians on Prozac would suddenly claim the Blues are on the verge of becoming a title-chasing team.

But they do look capable of finishing in the top half of the table - and becoming good to watch while doing it.

For Evertonians who had given up not that many years ago on seeing their club ever salvage some self-respect, that's plenty to be going on with.