Everton hit a new low on the weekend as they were hammered 4-1 at Southampton on Sunday. Once again they just fell apart and were steamrollered and that was against a Southampton side who went into the game as one of the lowest scoring sides in the Premier League this season. So for the Toffees, it was another poor return after their midweek humiliation at Goodison Park against Atalanta in the Europa League and they seem no closer to sorting out their managerial issue.
Clearly, caretaker boss David Unsworth isn’t working out for them and the Toffees were slashed into 6/1 at Paddy Power in the Premier League relegation market on the weekend. The defeat against the Saints has left Everton just two points clear of safety, with just three wins for the season and with the worst defensive record in the top flight. There doesn’t look to be any relief for them and they appear to be pretty clueless as to how to get themselves out of this mess.
The fact that is has taken them so long to replace Ronald Koeman who was given the boot back on October 23rd speaks volumes. There appears to have been no backup plan in place either because after desperately trying to get Marco Silva away from Watford, without any success, it is still a mystery as to who the Merseysiders are looking to. Martin O’Neill is the 5/4 favourites in the Next Permanent Everton manager market, while Silva is still in there at a short price at 5/1. The other name they have been linked to is Burnley’s Sean Dyche who is a 6/1 shot but both are doing respectively well with their clubs and are unlikely to move.
December Salvation?
Despite a summer of heavy investment Everton’s current standing appears to bring in a reality of facing life outside of the top flight for the first time since the 1950s. Their run through to the end of the year for Everton actually sees them with a pretty decent fixture list ahead of them. Their only trying games are at Liverpool on December 10th and then at home against Chelsea on December 23rd. For their other December fixtures, they face West Ham, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Swansea, West Brom and Bournemouth.
That should be a manageable fixture list for the Toffees but they really need someone to come in a steady the ship at the very top and to guide them through it. If they don’t get through that with a degree of success then they are going to be in big trouble. There may well be enough in that to at least keep their heads above water, but their hammering at Southampton on the weekend did raise more red flags about them.
Premier League Relegation Market
Swansea are the 4/11 favourites to get relegated this season after blowing a lead against Crystal Palace on the weekend to suffer another defeat. They don’t look as if they have the quality to realistically survive. Huddersfield (5/4) and Crystal Palace are 13/8 to suffer relegation despite the Terriers being seven points better off than bottom side Palace are. West Ham are 7/4 to drop under David Moyes while West Brom are 9/4 to suffer a fall to the second tier.