Every preview could begin in the exact same fashion at this point. Everton produced yet another dismal display away to Sunderland on Monday night and will count themselves lucky to come away with a point in a 1-1 draw. The performance felt like more of the same which we have seen for months on end now – good, sometimes very good, in patches, then completely lose momentum and hang on for dear life to get something from the game. It is exhausting and predictable, and something must change. The manager? Possibly.
A point away at Sunderland is never the end of the world, but after a run of one win since August, it very much feels like it. Everton were the only team who looked like winning in the first 30 minutes or so, right up until Thierno Barry’s missed chance which he should have put away. It was an inexcusable miss, but I find it hard to pin the blame entirely on him when David Moyes decides to substitute him off before the 50th minute every time he starts. Maybe if he had a solid run of minutes and starts, his performances would improve?
After that, the pendulum swung entirely in Sunderland’s favour. Everton created 0.02xG in the second half. 0.02! Those substitutions worked perfectly, didn’t they?
Looking ahead, Everton are back at the Hill Dickinson Stadium after it hosted the Rugby League match between England and Australia last week, this time to face a struggling Fulham on Saturday. Fulham are one of the (few) teams below Everton in the table, winning three and losing five of their opening ten games of the season, with four of these losses coming in a row. They will be on a high after a positive last week and a half, after breezing past struggling Wolves 3-0 at the weekend and scraping through to the Carabao Cup Quarter-Finals after a penalty shootout victory against Wycombe.
Everton and Fulham – History
Everton have not beaten Fulham at home since 2018, which saw a 3-0 win under now-Fulham boss Marco Silva.
Everton did, however, win the last meeting between the two teams, with a 3-1 win at Craven Cottage in May.
Fulham at home give flashbacks to many Everton fans to the 2023 Carabao Cup Quarter-Final, where Amadou Onana missed a penalty to send Everton through. At least it saved us a two-legged tie against Liverpool.
What the Manager says
On the performance vs Sunderland – ‘I thought the second-half performance was way below the levels we’ve set generally, and I think we’d set the levels we think we’re at in the first half for long periods.’
On Iliman Ndiaye’s goal – ‘He was in front of me just at the dugout and fought off a couple of challenges, got away, wriggled in, beat people and passed it into the corner. It was a really, really good goal.’
Team News
Iliman Ndiaye will be assessed after an early substitution against Sunderland, with David Moyes reassuring fans that his departure was only due to cramp.
Defenders Jarrad Branthwaite and Nathan Patterson remain sidelined.
As for Fulham, left-back Antonee Robinson remains injured.
Raul Jimenez returned to the starting line-up last week against Wolves, getting 72 minutes under his belt after injury.
Everton Key player
Jack Grealish – Every week feels like a 50/50 between Grealish and Ndiaye as to who to choose for this section, such is the serious lack of quality elsewhere in the Everton squad. Poor fullbacks, poor midfielders, and poor strikers leave me next to no choice for this section, and with Fulham being a solid team in terms of defences set-pieces and Everton being dreadful at attacking them, it looks like Everton’s chances of getting a result are going to have to come from the wings once again.
Grealish has certainly gone off the boil in recent weeks – not completely through his own fault. Teams are realising that Everton do not have a left-back who can overlap, so you can double, sometimes triple, up on Grealish with no repercussions. It is a miracle that he can still create chances at the rate he does – on another day, he comes away with a beautiful assist for Thierno Barry against Sunderland.
More goals are still needed from Grealish – he is now nine games into his season and only returned one goal, that being a fortunate tackle-come-shot against Crystal Palace. He did hit the post against Sunderland and probably should have scored against Spurs within the first five minutes – at some point, his quality will show and these shots will start hitting the back of the next, which is why I am backing him to score and be Everton’s star player this weekend.
One to watch for Fulham
Kevin – After a slight complain about Grealish’s lack of goals in the last section, choosing Fulham’s star player to be a winger with no goals or assists this season could be seen as contradictory. That is until you see that Kevin’s first league start of the season only came last week against Wolves. What happened? They coasted to a 3-0 win.
It is a huge surprise that it took until November for Fulham’s club-record signing to start a league game, taking into account Fulham’s poor form, stagnant team and Marco Silva’s constant complaints about lack of spending. A team like Fulham’s cries out for a pacy, dynamic winger – not the Adama Traore sort, but a player who can add some pace and power along with some tricky technical ability. Kevin provides that.
It is no surprise that fans of the Cottagers were crying out for their new signing to start all season, and now that the first start has come, many more will follow and that first goal contribution will not be far off. Everton have struggled with wingers all season, and Kevin provides flashbacks of Crysencio Summerville’s profile, from the West Ham game back in September.
Final Thoughts
We are seriously entering must-win territory for Everton and David Moyes here. A draw with a positive result could buy him some time, but not much. The performances since August have given no evidence to prove that Everton are going to be any better than they were last season- quite the opposite. Now is the time for Moyes to back up his claim that Everton should be in the conversation for Europe this season – Fulham at home is one of those fixtures where you cannot afford to slip up.
If results go against Everton this weekend, they could find themselves 17th at the end of this gameweek – quite a disaster given the promise of the start of the season and the money spent in the summer. If that does happen, then the manager has to go, no questions asked. It seems like half of the fanbase has turned against him now due to his stubbornness and inexplicable treatment of the young players in the squad; a defeat on Saturday could see things get ugly and perhaps spell the end.
Prediction
2-1 – I think Everton are still a solid team at home, despite the 3-0 defeat to Spurs last time out. That was never a 3-0 game and, whilst I think Everton did deserve to lose, they could have come away with at least a draw on another day. Unfortunately, that is what Everton have been all season – ‘if’, ‘if’, ‘if’. Now is the time for certainties. Win on Saturday and the perspective will chance, and I think this is the sort of match where Everton will grind out a result.
That being said, I cannot see a clean sheet. It’s now seven games without one for the Toffees and this run doesn’t seem like ending. Opposition teams seem to be cutting through the midfield like a knife through butter, and if that fails, the full-backs are not good enough to stop attacks down their side either. I think this will be an edgy game due to this, with many chances for both teams – the optimist in me thinks that Everton will be the more clinical of the two teams.
About The Author
Leave a Reply