In the end, Everton suffered a third dose of ‘capital punishment’ in less than a month with a 2-1 defeat to West Ham United but when seeking crumbs of comfort in what remains a crucial week for the club, they at least went down fighting on this occasion. The trick now is to ensure they don’t go down full stop next month and after scant reward in the bright lights of London, there’s a huge fixture among the hills and mills of Burnley that could define their destiny.
With the aforementioned Clarets and Watford both losing on Saturday, the Blues at least knew neither of their closest relegation rivals had closed any ground on them going into this fixture.
But those games in hand we keep hearing about are no good unless Frank Lampard’s side actually do something to save themselves and once again they were unable to stop the rot away from Goodison Park.
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The Everton manager questioned his players’ stomach for the fight after their previous setback, a 4-0 mauling at Crystal Palace in their FA Cup quarter-final a fortnight ago and while in the build-up to this game he clarified his “b*******” remark, everyone among the club’s long-suffering fanbase knew exactly what he meant.
So in what remains to this point the club’s worst top-flight season of all-time, perhaps there are some encouragement to take to Turf Moor that Lampard’s men actually had a go here.
Ultimately they were undone by mistakes at key moments. Holgate’s foul on Jarrod Bown which produced the free-kick which was perfectly-executed by Aaron Cresswell, the otherwise impressive Alex Iwobi’s failure to control Michael Keane’s pass for the second goal and then a second booking for Keane himself when the visitors were chasing the game.
Wednesday night was always going to be massive and after yet another defeat, is even more so but Evertonians are left hoping that the 11 men who their hopes are riding on, are prepared to battle for them and might just be able to turn the tide with a bit of overdue good fortune.
