Perhaps life in the Championship won't be so bad...

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
I was unsure if Burnley getting rid of Sean Dyche was a wise move on their part or not. Their results have gotten instantly better, so it seems like Burnley have made the right choice. Their run in has a few definitely winnable games coming up.

As a Toffee, I don't see where Everton's wins are going to come from and while I wasn't expecting anything from Anfield today and the 2-0 was a little flattering towards our hosts, I was hopeful that maybe we might have gotten something.

We are fast running out of games and our goal difference has certainly slid compared to Burnley's!
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
It’s going to be tighter than a crab’s bum, by the looks of things. Your remaining fixtures are:

Chelsea (H)
Leicester (A)
Watford (A)
Brentford (H)
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (A)

Burnley have:

Watford (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Newcastle (H)

Using my predicting brain I’m seeing both teams picking up four points from those fixtures, which is not good news for you. But the prediction game isn’t reliable and as the old saying goes, it’s a funny old game.

Burnley have momentum after their last couple of games and that counts for a lot when it comes to a run of form that can make or break the season.

But there were huge positives from Everton’s performance today. They were very disciplined and composed in the first half, not many teams have been able to keep Liverpool at bay for as long as they did. If your men Gordon and Richarlison can stay on their feet and put the ball in the onion bag a couple of times against Watford it might just be the boost that could make the games against Brentford and Palace winnable.

Either way, you’re likely to have no fingernails left by 22nd May 😬

(And Frank has experience of managing in the Championship if you do go down. It might be the sobering reality check the board needs to start running Everton like an actual football club again)
 

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
It’s going to be tighter than a crab’s bum, by the looks of things. Your remaining fixtures are:

Chelsea (H)
Leicester (A)
Watford (A)
Brentford (H)
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (A)

Burnley have:

Watford (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Newcastle (H)

Using my predicting brain I’m seeing both teams picking up four points from those fixtures, which is not good news for you. But the prediction game isn’t reliable and as the old saying goes, it’s a funny old game.

Burnley have momentum after their last couple of games and that counts for a lot when it comes to a run of form that can make or break the season.

But there were huge positives from Everton’s performance today. They were very disciplined and composed in the first half, not many teams have been able to keep Liverpool at bay for as long as they did. If your men Gordon and Richarlison can stay on their feet and put the ball in the onion bag a couple of times against Watford it might just be the boost that could make the games against Brentford and Palace winnable.

Either way, you’re likely to have no fingernails left by 22nd May 😬

(And Frank has experience of managing in the Championship if you do go down. It might be the sobering reality check the board needs to start running Everton like an actual football club again)
Yeah, 4 points is likely to be something along the lines of what we'll get from those games, but there's still a couple of games with some variables. Brentford showed the other week by thumping Chelsea that Chelsea can play hot or cold, and we could get something from them at Goodison if they have an off-day and we turn up. That being said, Lukaku is due a performance and is more likely to deliver one against a former club. We were a little fortunate to get a point off Leicester in mid-week, but our playing until the final whistle may just psyche Leicester out a little. Eriksen's comeback means Brentford could really do some damage to us. Palace gave us a kicking at their place in the cup and obviously led to Lampard's questioning our squad's genitalia - Goodison should be a different proposition, especially as their recent form is similar to ours. That recent run of Arsenal losses show that they can be got at and if the Champs League places are all sewn up before the final day, point(s) could be possible then. even at their place.

As you say, it's going to be incredibly tight. I've not bitten my nails in more than 20 years, but I may start up again soon!

My main worry is that we've played well in some recent games (thinking particularly against both Manchester clubs) and then Frank has made a lof of changes for the following game and we've played poorly in those games, as seemingly the team has been shaken up too much. If we play the same sort of personnel as we did today and put in a similar level of performance, we're much more likely to get something from Chelsea!
 

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
I stand by my last point in my previous post. By putting out a very similar team today and by remaining defensively solid, we got the 3 points!

I didn't realise the situation at Leeds was as precarious as it is. Burnley are probably still safe, but I feel like we'll get the points needed to catch Leeds.

We may continue in the Premier League yet!
 
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AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
You just might!

Years of profligacy have brought you to the brink of relegation but I’m from the northwest I want Everton and Burnley to stay up. As a Lancastrian I’m more than happy for Leeds to head back down to the Championship, especially now that the always entertaining Bielsa has gone.
 

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
It’s going to be tighter than a crab’s bum, by the looks of things. Your remaining fixtures are:

Chelsea (H)
Leicester (A)
Watford (A)
Brentford (H)
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (A)

Burnley have:

Watford (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Spurs (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Newcastle (H)

Using my predicting brain I’m seeing both teams picking up four points from those fixtures, which is not good news for you. But the prediction game isn’t reliable and as the old saying goes, it’s a funny old game.

Burnley have momentum after their last couple of games and that counts for a lot when it comes to a run of form that can make or break the season.

But there were huge positives from Everton’s performance today. They were very disciplined and composed in the first half, not many teams have been able to keep Liverpool at bay for as long as they did. If your men Gordon and Richarlison can stay on their feet and put the ball in the onion bag a couple of times against Watford it might just be the boost that could make the games against Brentford and Palace winnable.

Either way, you’re likely to have no fingernails left by 22nd May 😬

(And Frank has experience of managing in the Championship if you do go down. It might be the sobering reality check the board needs to start running Everton like an actual football club again)
We have 6 points since this post. I'm lost for words. I think we may actually be okay now. Still going to be nervous until it's mathematically done of course!
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
We have 6 points since this post. I'm lost for words. I think we may actually be okay now. Still going to be nervous until it's mathematically done of course!
I think you might be right. Hopefully another three points coming your way against Watford, who have absolutely nothing to play for.

It’s going to be tight and my crystal ball tells me that Burnley and Leeds will end up with the same amount of points but the inferior goal difference of Leeds means that they’re for the drop.
 

ThoRob

Silver Level Poster
As a fellow Toffee we can now breath again. Although we do like to make it hard for ourselves don't we.
My worry is I don't see things improving significantly next season. Even if (with some creative accounting) we aren't in breach of financial fair play rules we are so close we wont be able to make significant changes to the squad. It also seems likely that other clubs will be sniffing around our better players. We could easily end up with the quality leaving and the overpaid dross collected over the last few seasons remaining.
 

AccidentalDenz

Lord of Steam
As a fellow Toffee we can now breath again. Although we do like to make it hard for ourselves don't we.
My worry is I don't see things improving significantly next season. Even if (with some creative accounting) we aren't in breach of financial fair play rules we are so close we wont be able to make significant changes to the squad. It also seems likely that other clubs will be sniffing around our better players. We could easily end up with the quality leaving and the overpaid dross collected over the last few seasons remaining.
My messages in this thread are quite funny to look back on as we really didn't make it easy for ourselves at all.

When Lampard first came in, we were trying to play possession-based football, but we've only got a handful of players capable of playing that way, and with the squad confidence as low as it was, it just wasn't going to work. When he moved to more of a counter-attacking style, that's when we started getting the results. I think if we stick to the counter-attacking style for next season, and look to make squad additions along those lines, we will move up the table.

Having had a bit of a look over the accounts on our website and the FFP rules, I think we could have around 20 mil to play with this summer, after we played it safe last summer & our January signings were covered by the Digne sale. If we pick one or two players to sell on (not sure who, but sacrificing Richy would be a possibility) that'd give us a bit more wiggle room for new signings to improve a couple of areas. We've done it in the past when we sold Rooney in 2004 and used some of the money to bring in Cahill and Arteta and the rest to pay off parts of the debts we had at the time. Frank seems to get on well with the new Director of Football, so they're on the same page. Just have to see how good the DoF's negotiating skills are!

Frank's backroom staff are fairly highly rated, and he himself seems open to learning and developing his coaching skills. If we're able to start next season in similar form to how we seem to be ending this one, then getting back up to midtable is a possbility. That'd give us a platform to build our way back up the table as we did in the early Moyes years.

Up the Toffees!
 

ThoRob

Silver Level Poster
Having had a bit of a look over the accounts on our website and the FFP rules, I think we could have around 20 mil to play with this summer, after we played it safe last summer & our January signings were covered by the Digne sale. If we pick one or two players to sell on (not sure who, but sacrificing Richy would be a possibility) that'd give us a bit more wiggle room for new signings to improve a couple of areas. We've done it in the past when we sold Rooney in 2004 and used some of the money to bring in Cahill and Arteta and the rest to pay off parts of the debts we had at the time. Frank seems to get on well with the new Director of Football, so they're on the same page. Just have to see how good the DoF's negotiating skills are!

Frank's backroom staff are fairly highly rated, and he himself seems open to learning and developing his coaching skills. If we're able to start next season in similar form to how we seem to be ending this one, then getting back up to midtable is a possbility. That'd give us a platform to build our way back up the table as we did in the early Moyes years.
I hope your right.
 
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