The new Premier League season is finally up and running this weekend for all but two of its current incumbents. With Everton’s match at Tottenham postponed for safety reasons following recent events in the capital, the Toffees will now start the season a week later at home to newly promoted Queens Park Rangers.
Whilst the decision to re-arrange the fixture at White Hart Lane is obviously the correct one and has been universally backed by players and staff from both clubs as public safety must come first Everton, more so than most clubs, would have been keen to put a very difficult couple of months behind them and get down to the so-called business end of things.
Notoriously slow starters, Everton have not won on the opening day of the season since 2007 and have actually only won twice in their last nine attempts altogether. It is difficult to actually pinpoint any reasoning behind this failing, but it certainly has become a bit of a stick to beat them with. At least this season there hasn’t been the usual rallying cry from Phil Neville about how the club is going to hit the ground running. Amazingly over the past two seasons Everton have only won nine games in the run up to Christmas compared to 30 after the festive period. Admittedly statistics can be misleading but it is still a stark contrast.
The main consequence of these slow starts is that Everton are perennially playing catch-up. The club didn’t actually win a fixture until October last season, a season where even Sir Alex Ferguson had tipped them to be outsiders for the Champions League places. It is imperative that the same thing doesn’t happen this year because with the lack of transfer activity of any significance throughout the summer things could easily get pretty nasty.
The key is to actually achieve an even half decent start to the campaign and get the fans back onside from day one. Patience is supposed to be a virtue but it is generally in short supply when it comes to matters of a footballing nature. Another poor opening few months would no doubt start the ‘Moyes has taken Everton as far as he can’ whispers to start circulating once more.
The one thing that Everton have become synonymous with though is their performances when they are seemingly up against it, hence the lack of expectation from the media and their own fans could actually work in the clubs favour. Another positive aspect to take is the fact that so far Everton have also managed to keep hold of all their star players and promising youngsters too despite the dearth of incoming transfers.
So what realistically will constitute a decent season for Everton? Clearly the club will be aiming high and a Europa League placing isn’t out of the question, you just get the feeling that seventh and a ‘best of the rest’ tag is currently all they can hope for. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the current squad achieved the feat of seventh position last year with key players such as Cahill, Fellaini, Saha and Arteta missing large chunks of the season through injury. It would be something of a fillip if the annual early exit from Carling Cup to lower league opposition could be avoided for once.
For a club as steeped in history as Everton the sights should be set higher than seventh position. The argument that the club is standing still can’t really be disputed, but the dark days of Walter Smith seem a very, very long time ago. The frustrating thing is that Everton are so nearly there and don’t need a great deal of investment throwing at the playing staff to take them to the next level.
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