A win against Leicester City on Bonfire Night could have elevated Everton into the top half of the Premier League and even above neighbours Liverpool but instead their 2-0 defeat – with Harvey Barnes’ late second goal ensuring the Foxes, who went into the fixture in the relegation zone, leapfrogged their hosts in the table – means that the Blues are now left looking over their shoulders ahead of the World Cup break.
Given the high stakes surrounding Everton’s two fixtures against Leicester at the back end of last season – they met twice in the space of just 19 days after the home game, originally scheduled for December 18, 2021, was twice postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak within Brendan Rodgers’ squad – this latest meeting was deemed by many to be the ‘least important’ of the two clubs’ trio of meetings this year. But while it’s true that Frank Lampard’s side picked up four crucial points towards survival from that brace of games in the spring, including a first Premier League away win since the previous August, the unprecedented nature of the calendar for the current campaign adds increasing pressure to this weekend’s loss.
It’s bad enough when any Premier League team has to go into an international break on the back of a bad result as they know there’s nothing they can do about it for a fortnight. But just as Leicester, who until their triumph at Goodison Park had been in the relegation zone since August, were eager to move away from the drop zone ahead of the six-week hiatus, Everton do not want to find themselves in or around the bottom three when the music stops ahead of the tournament in Qatar. After last season’s trauma that saw the Blues come disgustingly close to what would have been a first relegation in 71 years, only to save themselves with just one game to spare despite recording the joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history, they have kept their heads above water this term.
