Everton have been here before – utter bemusement. This is the same group of players that beat Chelsea and both sides of Manchester at the back end of last season. Five games into this term however have only yielded two draws and three defeats. There have been no wholesale changes at Goodison Park, and key players have pledged their respective futures to the club. Everton have a team capable of challenging their contemporaries for the fourth Champions League spot (assuming correctly or not that the first three are occupied by Chelsea, United and Arsenal), and yet they are consistently let down by their sluggish start to campaigns.
Three defeats in the league already this season, three in the first five last season, and four in their opening six of the 08/09 season, mean that for all their virtues, they are constantly playing catch-up with Tottenham, Man City and Liverpool.
Only Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have had longer tenures at their clubs than David Moyes amongst the current crop of top flight bosses. Part of the reason that Moyes has remained in his job in such a trigger happy industry, is that he does an incredible on job on a relatively limited budget. He has never had the money to spend that the clubs around him have enjoyed, not Tottenham, and certainly not Man City. This is not to say they are penniless, but there is little room for financial gamble or error, however, their starts are not down to financial restrictions. Despite all this, Moyes still manages to put together and team healthy in both graft and guile.
The signings from the lower domestic echelons of players like Tim Cahill, Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka have been moulded into a sides with the bigger Fellaini-style purchases. And any team that can boast Tim Cahill, Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta in their midfield should be winning the majority of games that they play, regardless of the strikers (or sometime lack of them) ahead of them.
As sure as I am that Everton will start slowly in a campaign, I am as equally sure that they will wake up from their slumber and click into gear. At their best, they are a match for virtually anyone in the league, they have proved that. I have already documented the three defeats in their first five games of last season; in the same season, they only experienced three defeats in their last 25 games.
Witnessing the two injury-time goals against Man Utd I was filled with total elation, a fan a neither side, it was just thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Surely the kick-start to Everton’s season? Another home game to follow, against Newcastle, looked like one that they could push on from. And yet their performance was abject and stunted.
If Everton continue to start seasons in the fashion they have become accustomed to, they will continually hit a ceiling where they can only progress so far. They are six points off the pace of City and Spurs already, and that could make the difference come the end of the season. With all due respect, home games against Wolves and Newcastle should be six points for a team with Everton’s aspirations. It is not as if we can even say that Everton are missing a key ingredient; I can’t put my finger on one specific thing, because so much seems to be in place. I don’t have the answer, but believe that David Moyes is a good enough manager, and Everton are a good enough team, to solve the problem. The consistent high league finishes by Everton are to be commended, but if they are to have any opportunity of getting back to the heights of the 80s, then the stagnant starts have to stop.
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