But after failing once again to build on their impressive start to the season, Big Sam may be wondering whether he can ask for a refund in the January sales.
Mikel Arteta's thunder-bolt strike, an hour into a turgid meeting of two of the league's most committed sides, was enough to give the Blues a valuable home win.
Anelka's body language throughout the second half was enough to suggest, however, that this may not be the match made in heaven Allardyce thought it could be.
This was the Frenchman's tenth outing for the Trotters, with a solitary strike in the League Cup all he was to show in the goals for column.
The man famously nicknamed Le Sulk, for his previous indiscretions at Arsenal, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Fenerbahce, did show some early touches of class, but his 'play when I feel like it' style seems ill-suited to the blood and guts effort Big Sam expects from the rest of his troops.
For their part Everton did not make things easy for their North West neighbours. Organised as ever the Blues missed the thriving forward runs of the injured Tim Cahill but made up for it with the ultra-combative duo of Lee Carsley and Phil Neville doing their best to keep the Bolton bully boys at bay in the middle of midfield.
An open start saw both sides create telling chances within the first quarter of an hour. Ivan Campo flashed a volley wide after good work from Anelka five minutes in and seconds later, Leon Osman flicked a header goalwards from a dangerous position which Jussi Jaaskelainen saved comfortably in the end.
However, after Carsley fluffed another headed chance on 15 minutes the game descended into a niggly foul-fest with neither side able to establish any kind of rhythm.
Referee Uriah Rennie's lecture to El Hadji Diouf before the game had even kicked off set the tone with both teams giving away a procession of free-kicks in a disappointing first half.
Arteta, once again Everton's best player, did his best to restore some class to proceedings, jinking inside stand-in left-back Henrik Pedersen down the Everton right and firing a left-footed stinger through a crowd of players which Jaaskelainen did well to save with an out-stretched leg.
But aside from a wild volley from Idan Tal, in for Bolton captain Kevin Nolan who withdrew on compassionate grounds after his wife went into labour an hour before kick-off, that was exciting as it got.
Both sides' steely midfields cancelled each other out and the game had a worrying goalless draw feel about it until Arteta's rocket on the hour mark.
The Spaniard picked the ball up on the right after Carsley took advantage of a loose ball in the centre. He drove forwards and jinked inside first Abdoulaye Meite, then Tal, before unleashing a stunning left-footed drive that almost burst the back of the Bolton net and sent Goodison reeling in ecstasy.
The result may have been harsh on Bolton as in truth neither side probably deserved to lose. But as Anelka trudged straight off on the full-time whistle Big Sam will have been wondering quite what he has to do to get his most expensive asset firing, or whether it is already time to cut his losses and go back to what he knows.