There is no doubt that the highlight of Everton’s year came on the evening of May 19. The party that followed the dramatic 3-2 triumph over Crystal Palace lasted long into the early hours. It was an evening those present at Goodison Park will not forget. But the ‘achievement’ was relative.
By winning their penultimate game of the 2021/22 campaign against Patrick Vieira’s team, Everton secured their top-flight status for at least another season. A first relegation since 1954 had been staved off and the subsequent jubilation was an antidote to the months previous — and hence.
There hasn’t been much joy around Goodison Park these past 12 months. A year that started with the final rites of Rafael Benitez’s short-lived reign and the torturous process by which Frank Lampard was finally appointed as the club’s new manager is now ending in equally as frightful a manner.
Everton have won just three Premier League games this season and only one of their last five. They have lost three on the spin stretching back before the World Cup break and if they thought their season had hit rock bottom when furious fans hurled players’ shirts back at them following a dismal defeat at Bournemouth six weeks ago, they were sadly mistaken.
Jeers and whistles pierced the Boxing Day air at Goodison Park after Wolverhampton Wanderers’ late winner courtesy of Rayan Ait Nouri left Everton just one place and one point above the relegation zone. There are now chilling similarities to last season.
Lampard called for the supporters’ backing in the aftermath of a fourth straight defeat and the Everton manager is starting to feel the pressure. The goodwill emanating from guiding Everton to survival last term is beginning to seep and bookmakers now have him as favourite to be the next Premier League manager to be disposed.
The World Cup break was meant to stem a tide that had been growing during the early weeks of the season. But the gloom only gathers quicker as the calendar turns. After a run of just one win in nine games across all competitions, it’s a far from ideal time to have Manchester City up next. Logic will have to be reversed if Everton are to finish the year on any sort of high.
The position in which Lampard now finds himself is one that all his recent predecessors have wrestled with. Ronaldo Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva and, of course, Benitez all ended up taking leave with the supporters on their back. Even Carlo Ancelotti, who wasn’t able to garner too strong a relationship with the fans given most of his tenure came during the pandemic-enforced lockdown, struggled in the Everton job and pounced at the first exit opportunity.
Lampard has banked credit and is deserving of a measure of sympathy, and though results have been poor, there are mitigating circumstances that have been beyond his control. It is widely assumed that owner Farhad Moshiri isn’t going to loosen the purse strings in January even though Everton remain short in several positions.
Colossal waste in past transfer windows — not to mention the £500 million price of the new stadium in Bramley Moore Dock — has caught up with Everton and the worry is where that leads come May.
Faith in Lampard is being tested
The uphill struggle that Lampard faces was only too apparent when Richarlison was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £60 million on the eve of the campaign. The Brazilian forward scored 10 league goals last season and assisted with a further five. Everton have scored a mere 12 times all told in the Premier League so far this term.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s near constant absence because of a catalogue of injuries has been rotten luck for Lampard — the striker has played just six times so far and his absence has robbed Everton of presence up front.
The players signed to add to Everton’s attack have struggled: Neal Maupay, who cost £15 million from Brighton & Hove Albion, has just one goal in 12 games so far, while Dwight McNeil has two in 18. Anthony Gordon is their leading league scorer with three.
One consolation appeared to be that Everton were far more resolute defensively and Lampard had seemed to bring greater structure and stability to a team often giving the air of being at sixes and sevens in the past.
The loan signing of Conor Coady and permanent purchase of James Tarkowski assisted in this, but recent performances suggest regression. Bournemouth smashed seven goals past them in the space of five days in November. The fallout from those two defeats in League Cup and Premier League still lingers
Coady was unable to feature against Wolves, his parent club, in Monday’s 2-1 defeat. The concession of the 95th-minute goal from a counter-attack had the hallmarks of Everton’s dark sense of comic timing. They seem to do punishing endings like few others.
No doubt much is currently swirling around Lampard’s head. Pragmatic football just about rescued Everton last term, there are more questions as to how they will go about arresting this run of poor form.
A visit to the Etihad Stadium on New Year’s Eve is not a day of reckoning for Everton but an alarming prospect nonetheless. The true tone will emerge come the end of January after crucial games against fellow strugglers Southampton and West Ham United. Lose them and Lampard will be fearing the worst.