Everton beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Goodison Park on Sunday with Marco Silva’s side now eighth in the Premier League table.
The current make up of the Premier League makes it difficult to know what to demand of clubs like Everton.
The current ‘big six’ means teams outside of Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manchester giants are often fighting for the ‘best of the rest’ consolation prize with the league segmented into two distinct fragments.
So do Everton have any chance of forcing themselves into the top four this season? Chris Sutton doesn’t think so, although he acknowledges that The Toffees are much improved since Marco Silva replaced Sam Allardyce at Goodison Park.
“I don’t think Everton will get into the top four,” Sutton told 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live (21 October, 6pm).
“But it has been pretty encouraging under Marco Silva, trying to play a different brand of football.”
A hard-fought 2-0 win against Crystal Palace on Sunday, sealed by late goals from substitutes Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Cenk Tosun, moved Everton up to eighth in the table, though they are still six points adrift of Tottenham in the final Champions League place.
Sutton has, however, tipped £28 million centre-back Yerry Mina to make a big impact on Merseyside after his summer move from Barcelona.
“They’ve got Yerry Mina to come back. He’s going to be big for Everton when he comes back.”
Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane have been impressive at the back of late, however, so it remains to be seen when Mina will get his chance.
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