Dean Ashton claimed that Everton’s newfound ability to relax had allowed them to defeat Huddersfield Town comfortably on Saturday.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that he wasn’t surprised that the Toffees defeated the Terriers 2-0 at the John Smith’s Stadium and revealed that he thought going into games relaxed had caused them to be in decent form.
“This result didn’t surprise me,” admitted Ashton when grading every Premier League sides’ performances from the weekend for Sky Sports.
“Everton are in decent form and I expected them to go there and be relaxed, and you saw that with Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun and the way they play.
“They’ve got some players back recently, Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines, they’ve got the quality but they’ve not been as relaxed during the season as they would had liked.
“It makes a big difference.”
Sam Allardyce’s side have not suffered a loss in any of their last four games, and have picked up two wins in the process.
This recent form has seen the Toffees sit eighth in the Premier League, six points behind seventh-placed Burnley.
OPINION
It’s so rare to hear a pundit compliment the Toffees these days after a rough season. Ashton opted to award Allardyce’s team an A for their performance against Huddersfield and it’s easy to see why. The Toffees never looked capable of losing that game at any point and barely had to get out of second gear to earn all three points. It’s interesting that the pundit has pinpointed the Toffees’ ability to go into games relaxed as opposed to being terrified at the thought of relegation. Normally when a team takes a casual approach to life in the Premier League, they’re slammed by pundits for it as it normally leads to disappointing results.