Phil Neville has warned Everton they aren’t at the level they think they are at and recent defeats have been a ‘reality check’ for them, as posted by Football Reaction.
The former defender also claimed that there seems to be a ‘big difference’ in the quality Southampton have compared to what Everton have in their locker.
On Friday night, the Saints beat Newcastle 2-0 to move to the top of the Premier League table – they have since been dethroned – but it was a very well-balanced performance from them.
When analysing Everton’s performance against Manchester United over the weekend, Neville was pretty honest in where he thinks the club is at.
“I thought defensively they were poor,” said Neville. “It looked easy. Holgate looked rusty. Mina obviously got left out because of his previous performances. Letting in goals is a problem for Everton.
“We spoke about before the game about winning and going top of the league and thinking about Southampton [on Friday night]. It still looks a big difference to what we saw with Southampton and the quality of Everton over the last three or four games.
“Maybe, the last three or four games have been a bit of a reality check for where Everton think they should be.”
The one issue for Carlo Ancelotti is to stop the team from leaking goals because that is taking the edge out of what was a thriving forward line at the start of the season.
Everton’s main aim at the start of the campaign was to reach Europe and finish in those top seven places.
And whilst they have been knocked down a few times in recent weeks, they are still on track in that regard and it’s just a case of ensuring recent results don’t become a habit.
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