Everton have proudly been playing top flight football, almost continuously since the very beginning, but like many clubs both large and small – indeed all those not first invited to join the ‘dirty dozen’ – their whole raison d’etre is being threatened again by the greed that keeps Real Madrid president Florentino Perez pushing for his hugely unpopular European Super League.
A joint lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history saw the Blues come disgustingly close to a first relegation in 71 years earlier last season but thankfully a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory over Crystal Palace ensured that they’re now enjoying a record-breaking 120th campaign in the English top flight. Other than a couple of brief Second Division interludes (a single season in 1930/31 and a three-year stint between 1951-54), Everton have been operating in the highest division possible to them.
They are the only club to be both founder members of the Football League in 1888 and ever-presents in the Premier League era. The pioneering kick-off of the former was before any of the so-called ‘big six’ of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, the clubs initially invited into the ESL, joined the competition and 14 years before Senor Perez’s beloved Los Blancos came into existence.
