Recent weeks in the Premier League have been full of drama. Leeds United are looking for a new manager, Southampton too. VAR controversies, upsets and a transfer window have added to the noise as teams around Everton jockey for an advantage in what looks set to be a rollercoaster of a relegation fight.
The Blues have been central to the intrigue, from replacing the club’s manager to pulling off a much-needed - and much-deserved - win over table-topping Arsenal in Sean Dyche’s first match as boss.
Amid all of the chaos Dyche is only focused on Everton - what he can do at the club, what he, his players and the fans can achieve together. If he has tunnel vision then the light he is trying to pull the club towards is survival in the top flight.
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This is not to say he is not aware of what else is happening around Everton. But everything has a context and that, for him, now, is the Blues. The day after his debut win at Goodison Park he was at the City Ground to watch Nottingham Forest take on Leeds. That was a scouting trip ahead of important upcoming games against both sides. On Saturday he was at Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur. Games against both are further away but every match holds the potential to learn something that could help his new quest.
How Liverpool, Everton’s next opponents, are faring is another matter Dyche has an awareness of but not a focus on. Speaking ahead of the Merseyside derby he repeatedly made clear the club’s disappointing season so far and the future of manager Jurgen Klopp are not of relevance to him, save for how he can interpret the recent struggles to try and plot a way to a positive result at Anfield.
“I’m certainly not worried about stats and facts with Liverpool," Dyche said. “I’m just planning on us delivering. I can’t emphasise that enough. I’ve just got here and I can’t legislate for the opposition and what they are doing every week. I need to focus on what we need to do and imprint it as quickly as I can. Virtually all my efforts are on what I’m doing here without much scope for worrying about what else is going on in football. Everyone can take care of themselves, it’s my job to take care of us. That’s what I’m planning on doing. We have an awareness of what the opposition do on the pitch but all the rest of it is just noise to me and my focus is on Everton Football Club.”
Dyche ended an unbeaten Anfield league run that stretched 68 games when he was in charge of Burnley. He can take confidence from that but, just like the season in which he led his former club to safety after picking up 12 points from the first half of the campaign, Dyche is keen to stress that was at a different time, in a different place, and what matters is not what happened then but what happens next.
Asked whether that experience helps him, he explained: “No it just gives me something to reflect upon. It’s another part of your knowledge and I’ll tap into that and how to understand a group of players. This is a new group and not necessarily everything that worked with that group will work with this group. There will be some things, some fundamentals that are absolutely in place but it is a different way of operating with this group. I’ve always believed in the end of season anyway. That is when the table really matters. Regardless of the points on it, just that you’re the right side of the points.”
And does he have a points tally in mind for survival? He answered: “I’ve the end of the league table in mind. That’s it.”
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