Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has boldly claimed that one of Wolves or Everton could break into the top four of the Premier League as he insists the gap is closing to the top six.
Prior to Saturday’s fixtures, Wolves were left leading the way as best of the rest in seventh, 12 points behind Manchester United in sixth, 15 away from Chelsea in fourth and one point ahead of the Toffees a place below.
Talking about the fortunes of the two clubs, Merson was left bemoaning the inconsistency that he says has been the problem and insists that if they could overcome that issue they could be challenging for a Champions League spot.
Speaking on Sky Sports News’ Soccer Saturday (27/04, 14:43), he said: “That’s been Everton for me for the last I don’t know how many years – inconsistency. One minute they’ll be up there and the next minute it’s a five out of ten.
“It’s a bit like Wolves as well, they do well against the good teams and when it comes against the lesser ones, I don’t know if it’s (a case of) ‘we’ve just got to turn up,’ but everybody wants to finish the season well and it’ll give them that little bit of faith, the Everton fans to go: ‘You know what, who knows next season?’
“These teams now have got a chance of breaking into the top four and I say that because Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea at the moment are dropping back, they’re not going further and further away. You never know, someone’s only got to have a good start next season, put a bit of pressure on and you never know.”
Opinion
There is a huge gulf for Wolves, Everton or any of the other Premier League sides to bridge if they want to make it into the top six, let alone the top four. The finances between those at the top of the table and the rest of the league is the main difference and the ability to splash the cash on world superstars means that the other sides are being left behind. However, Wolves are not cash strapped by any means and if the Fosun International group feel like dipping a little deeper into their pockets then they could well have a case for pushing the top six next season. Likewise Farhad Moshiri at Everton, who has shown his spending power in recent transfer windows. It is a bold claim and one which would take a lot to come true, but stranger things have happened in the top flight – just look at Leicester’s title win.