It was only on the last day of March, three weeks ago, that both Crystal Palace and Everton were in similarly precarious positions.
 

Struggling to score and hovering just above the drop zone, it signalled a pivotal period in both clubs’ quest to avoid relegation.

Now, three games closer to the end of the season, the picture has changed and it goes a long way in showing how quickly a team’s fortunes can alter in the congested bottom half of the table.

In the final days of Patrick Vieira’s tenure as Palace head coach, the south London club were in 12th position and just one point ahead of Everton who were three places below them. After 28 league games, both teams had very similar records: collecting the same number of victories (six) and scoring the same number of goals (22) with Palace conceding two fewer (38 compared to Everton’s 40).

At the time, there was a growing feeling that a far-from-prolific attack would prove the undoing for either team in the battle to steer clear of demotion.

However, ahead of the two clubs meeting at Selhurst Park on Saturday, one can safely say that it is only the Blues who remain fearing for their Premier League status.

Palace have won three consecutive games against fellow strugglers Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton, scoring nine goals and conceding only twice, which has taken them clear of the bottom three.
 

Even though they remain in 12th, they now have a nine-point buffer to the dreaded dotted line.

Roy Hodgson is back in the Palace dugout (Photo: Ian Kington/GETTY Images) 

In contrast, Everton have drawn with Tottenham and lost to Manchester United and Fulham. On paper, Palace’s fixtures may have been a little kinder but it goes to show how a short burst can propel a team away from danger. The gap to Everton is now sizeable and their records no longer mirror each other.

Of course, the grand caveat to this is Palace brought in Roy Hodgson as Vieira’s replacement and experienced one of the most unlikeliest new-manager bounces.

Hodgson left Palace in 2021 because the club wanted to move in a more adventurous direction but are surely now hugely grateful for his return.

Everton may look at Palace’s uplift wistfully and hope they experience a similar euphoria before it’s too late. However, that does look somewhat unlikely.

The Merseyside club have already played their trump card of bringing in an experienced Premier League manager, renowned for his ability to create a functioning and stable team, but are yet to truly reap the rewards.

A haul of six points from Sean Dyche’s first three matches as manager has been followed by six from the next eight to prevent a meaningful push away from the relegation zone. He described the latest setback as a “big step backwards” and time is running out.

Everton's dreadful away achilles heel

Currently, Everton are equal with 18th-placed Nottingham Forest on 27 points and have seven games remaining. What will worry the Goodison faithful is that their three upcoming home matches are against Newcastle United, Manchester City and then Bournemouth on the final day.

Trips to Leicester, Brighton and Wolverhampton Wanderers, after Palace, are equally as daunting for a team who have won just once away from home in the league all term, at Southampton back on October 1.

I walked into a situation where the record hasn’t been great for a couple of seasons so it is more a case of working it out with the players,” the manager said of Everton’s struggles on the road.

The noise has been long enough now that people say ‘They can’t do this away’, ‘they can’t do that away’ so let’s change that story. You can’t wait for some magic dust to change it. That’s what I’ve been relaying to the players; let’s change the rhetoric of the story.”

Dyche will not be cowed by the prospect and isn’t afraid of prising out the solutions from a group of players he believes are better than everyone else thought.

Calvert-Lewin in training (Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via GETTY Images) 

Everton regularly pin their hopes on the frequently unavailable Dominic Calvert-Lewin but when he is fit and does play it often proves underwhelming.

He has now returned from a two-month layoff with a hamstring issue — a behind-closed-doors friendly against Chester was arranged this week to essentially act as the final step of his rehab — but that does not automatically mean a return to the goals for the division’s joint-lowest scorers.

I don’t think there is any other pressure, there’s certainly no pressure from me other than him to get fit and join in what we’re trying to achieve,” Dyche said of Calvert-Lewin, who could start at the weekend.

Facing Palace will bring back memories of that May evening last year when Everton secured their top-flight status with a dramatic 3-2 comeback win — it’s a night no Everton supporter will forget but equally one they hope will not have to happen again.

Unless they experience a resurgence akin to Palace’s then such a fraught ending to the season may prove inevitable.

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