This was a sobering reminder on Grand National Day that this might be the season that Everton’s luck runs out with a lacklustre 3-1 defeat to Fulham leaving loyal but beleaguered Blues feeling as flat as punters whose horse falls at the first fence at Aintree.
Those loyal but long-suffering supporters helped Everton’s under-achieving players to get over the line – just – last term when they survived despite what was the joint-lowest points total in the club’s history but in a place where football is king, the city’s senior club could soon face the prospect of many more occasions where they’re not the biggest show in town rather the annual one-off event of the world’s greatest steeplechase taking place just up the road.
From the moment he was appointed, there has been a general consensus that regardless of what division they’re in next term, Sean Dyche is the best man for the job here but while the ex-Burnley manager has twice taken the Clarets out of the Championship, the financial ramifications of a first relegation in 72 years for a club like Everton are terrifying with few guarantees that they’d be able to bounce back with the minimum of fuss as the current boss’ former charges have done under Vincent Kompany.
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While Dyche claims all Premier League fixtures are ‘must-win’ games, in reality, this fixture was, given their position, for the Blues as close to the living embodiment of that term and while Fulham had won here on their previous visit, that was in the artificial behind-closed-doors setting of the coronavirus pandemic and in a further indication of how much things have fallen, this was the fixture that Everton otherwise always triumphed in.
Harrison Reed stunned the hosts with his 22nd minute opener but galvanised by a tactical switch from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1, they equalised 13 minutes later through Dwight McNeil.
That’s as good as it got for the sorry hosts though as a side led by Marco Silva, one of the men Farhad Moshiri has sacked but up in the stands as he served the final match of a two-game touchline ban, slickly picked them off with second half strikes from Harry Wilson and Daniel James.
Up until now, there was hope that under Dyche at least, Everton might just have enough to keep their heads above water, but the ever-changing picture in the fight to stay up is far less pleasing on the eye for Blues after this painful defeat.
