Simon Jordan has outlined “three reasons” why he believes Everton will avoid relegation this season.
Everton fell to a 2-1 defeat against West Ham on Sunday as the Blues failed to steer themselves closer to Premier League survival. The result means that Frank Lampard’s side remain three points above the bottom three, albeit having played fewer games than the teams in the drop zone.
Much to the club’s relief, both Watford and Burnley were handed 2-0 defeats by Liverpool and Manchester City respectively. And former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan believes that Everton ’s Premier League status for next season is already assured due to the standard of the club’s relegation rivals.
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“I think there are three reasons why they can salvage the situation - Norwich, Burnley and Watford. Those are the three reasons because they are poor sides,” Jordan told Talksport .
“You saw nothing from Burnley besides a laydown and complete acceptance of Manchester City rolling over them. Everything Crystal Palace did is a blueprint to be able to negate Man City was everything Burnley didn’t do. Watford were slightly better against Liverpool but Liverpool were a little bit out of sorts so it’s probably not a fair barometer.”
Addressing Everton’s own performance against West Ham, Jordan criticised Frank Lampard ’s side for not capitalising on the Hammers’ lacklustre start to the second-half. However, the pundit insisted that the Blues will “stay up by default”, courtesy of the teams currently occupying the bottom three.
“West Ham, for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, did their level best to make it as easy for Everton as they possibly could,” Jordan added. “West Ham seemed to have gone to sleep.
“Everton can take a credible performance because they didn’t get bashed into the next life like they did against Crystal Palace. Their last performance in the FA Cup was a scandalous downing of tools and a complete lack of resilience, backbone and any ability to be able to react to adversity.”
He continued: “Yesterday was slightly better because they did react to adversity, they did get back in the game. It was only down to a ridiculous error and some very poor defending that compounded the problem.
“With Everton in the situation that they are in, there is no evidence Burnley, Watford and Norwich are going to give them any set of conundrums. I think Everton will stay up by default because the other three teams are so poor.”
