Stand by your beds everybody – the boys in blue are coming round. No, not the Old Bill or the binmen from along the A140 but something even more intimidating. We shortly entertain the slightly less noisy section of a great big footballing City in the North West, aka Everton.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always found Evertonians to be extremely decent people. I should know as I worked in Huyton several times over the years and the guys were great to be around. As were the Liverpudlians in the same ink manufacturing facility of course although at BASF Coatings + Inks the Blues outweighed the Reds by about three to one. By accident, not management design.
This time around, Everton have beaten Norwich City 2-0 before a ball has been kicked. That’s not referring to the early season result at Goodison. I’m alluding to their new signings in this instance.
Predictably we have signed the Invisible Man and the Ghost. Unlike us, Everton is a football club that takes its ongoing presence in the Premier League seriously and has brought in both Nathan Patterson from Glasgow Rangers and Vitalii Mykolenko from Dinamo Kyiv. Neither will have come for a small fee. I know nothing of Mykolenko but Patterson is a very sound baller. That clarifies my 2-0 remark.
A great source of further joy for us folks in yellow and green is that both Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison are pencilled in to return for the first time in a while at the Carra. I love DCL as a player and Richarlison can be pretty tasty too on his day.
Of course, the Toffees haven’t enjoyed a great start to the season under the FSW, who continues to divide opinion across the City. But having said that they are in no danger whatsoever of getting sucked into a basement battle and will be poised like vultures to pick on our mistakes. They have played two games less than us and have nine points more and will be looking to proceed in a northerly direction between now and season’s end.
Following our 2-0 reverse to West Ham at the London Stadium on Wednesday we became the first team in Premier League history to go six consecutive matches without scoring a goal, thus giving our many detractors yet more ammunition when they claim we have no right to be in the PL.
Like many of us, I accepted the inevitable way before Christmas. Pessimist or realist? You choose.
But that’s enough of me. Once more I have rounded up the Posse to see if they are any more cheery with their expectations tomorrow than the hangdog, weather-beaten and disgruntled old Sheriff.
Alex A reckons: “Rafa seems to have done for the Toffees what Smith is doing for the Canaries, in that instead of progressing under the new manager, both teams are in a downward spiral.
“We can only hope that Mathias Normann returns no later than the end of February to give us even the minutest chance of survival. Kenny McLean tries hard but he’s definitely not PL standard and his fine pass to Teemu Pukki on Sunday doesn’t atone for some of his inept displays of recent weeks.
“I know a handful of fans prefer us being in the Championship [including Delia], but I’m not one of them!
“I’d love to see us winning by the odd goal 2-1 or 3-2, but with our porous defence, I think that 2-2 is more likely.”
Alex B says: “With another game postponed this start to the second half of the season reminds me of Emergency Ward 10 [look it up, anybody under 60 – Martin] and clubs will all complain.
“Will Rafa and his ever faulting squad be oven-ready or under-cooked? They did scrape a win at Hull on Saturday and have had a full week to prepare with their game against Leicester being called off.
“Can City turn their season around? is the big question and we need to pick up points as we haven’t been cut adrift yet, despite what Ian Ladyman reckoned in the Mail earlier this week.
“I think this is one DS might have hopes for and will plump for a 2-1 City win. It has to happen sometime.”
Cutty considers: “Everton are one of the Prem ´Old Boys‘ but are having a torrid time at the moment and haven‘t managed a win in their last three league games. So my optimistic prediction is 1-1.
“Hopefully Deano can work some magic and I believe in the long term he will be good for the club, but I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes and I haven‘t felt that way before.”
Bernie Owen opines: “I’ll graciously omit the four-letter words I want to use following West Ham!
“Honestly I cannot see our defence making it through 90+ minutes without coughing up gilt-edged chances against Everton and should they take one we won’t score twice. My heart says a draw, my head says 1-2.”
I think things might turn a little bit malevolent among the peasants if we don’t put up a real good fight at the weekend. Maybe they should ditch the drill and r&b in the dressing room before the match for this, which is as uplifting as it gets:
I can see nothing but a dour 1-1 with both teams scared of losing more than having the gonads to go all out for win. With Dereham Town away, Kings Lynn with no game I am at a loss what to do. Anything than listening to another inept show.
Hi Lad
I think a dour performance is easier to bear when you’re at the ground with your mates – shoulders to cry on and all that.
1-1? We’ll be lucky!
Cheers
Continued dearth of goals or even effort and home matches will become incrementally more uncomfortable for the fans, players, and board. It wouldn’t surprise me if players started finding little niggles preventing them playing as things start to deteriorate.
The good news is we’re only two points away from bettering Derby County’s record of worst PL team ever. The bad news is where are those two points coming from?
Hi Chris
It must be very difficult to turn out when the losing mentality is instilled in the squad so I think you are right about reluctance in certain quarters.
I’m sure we will do better in terms of points than Derby but feel certain we will not better their gd come May.
Cheers
Isn’t that just classic Along Come Norwich Martin, Everton play umpteen games without Richarlison and DCL this season and guess when they are both back together …v Norwich City of course.
It’s like Danny Welbeck, the poor boy seems to make 4-5 appearances a year and nearly always gets the winning goal against us.
I think we are drinking in the last chance saloon now, a minimum of 4 points from the next 2 games or even the super optimists will have to accept the inevitable.
Not there tomorrow but I hope Ben Godfrey gets a massive ovation from the Canary faithful. No histrionics ala’ Todd Cantwell from this boy.
Served City magnificently.
Hi Tim
I completely agree with you about Ben Godfrey, who wasn’t a Webber find for what little that’s worth right now of course.
I leave score guesses to the Posse but put it this way I wouldn’t be expecting too much if were playing Accrington, let alone Everton.
We’ll see!
Cheers
I see another Burnley game called of due to shortage of numbers if its was that dier why did they sell their top scorer to a relegation rival.
Conspiracy or not city are getting their games played and picking up no points soon it will not matter about GD we will have played all our games and the other candidates for relegation will see we are gone.
Great read Martin and DS news conference today wasn’t very informative
Didn’t Newcastle implement a minimum fee clause which Burnley were bound by?
Hi Keith
Think you got that the wrong way round Burnley had a buy out Clause £25m which Newcastle met but there is also some add ons.
Once a club meets the buy out clause they can speak to the player but most clubs try delaying tactics to convince the player to stay ie a new contract but Burnley didn’t bother which has upset a friend in Blackpool that support them.
A good conspiracy goes a long way so I am told just ask Boris 🤣🤣🤣
Sorry, right idea, wrong term; meant “buy out” clause. Effectively they were stuffed. If the Toon are willing to pay that much for him they’re going to be able to offer wages will beyond what Burnley can.
Are there any suggestions that they (Burnley) might put a bid in for the Anglo-Chilean lad at Blackburn ?
Brereton-Diaz is a great player who I really rate but he would be completely wasted in a Sean Dyche outfit.
Not that I have heard from my friendly neighbours but they aren’t happy with being linked to free agent Andy Carroll from Reading
Oy Bain no……..
I mean mentioning Boris of course 🙂
Sorry about the B word I was thinking of the spider lol
Hi Keith
Wood himself came out this morning saying he thought it was a joke.
Make of that what you will.
Cheers
Not directly relevant to this match but just seen that due to “Covid and injuries” Burnley have had another game postponed. They’ve also potentially got £25m to spend on players who will be available when all these games are played, and had time to be bedded in to the squad. How convenient.
Given how poor we’ve been it’s unlikely to make much difference to us, but I would imagine everyone else in the relegation mix will be unimpressed.
Southampton manager has called for the Premiership to make players Purchased during a
covid-19 cancellation be banned in those rearranged games to keep a level playing field where possible and has backing from Tuchel who wants it taken further to include those that have players away at Afcon his reasoning is those clubs knew they would have them missing and should have planned better.
Turkeys and Thanksgiving
Fair point.
All a bit sad … listened to the match at WHam on the radio, quite disappointing.
Really do wish NCFC could conjure up a readily-scoring striker to complement Teemu for the second half of this somewhat ‘Ides of March’ season.
I guess we could spring a surprise this afternoon, probably depends on how adventurous Dean Smith is feeling multiplied by the belief of the players he selects. Smith sounds unhappy with the fanbase, which is not very encouraging is it? But really, as has been mentioned before on this message board and elsewhere, this game, and Watford, are the most crucial now.
Heartened by Max Aarrons’ fighting talk, lets hope the squad are up for the game!
I know this for a fact, I cannot hold my breath for 90 minutes, so it really is up to the team!
Rooting for the boys, anyway!!
COYYs !
Hi Kev
I missed this yesterday.
Well rooted, if you get my meaning 🙂
Cheers