David Moyes’ side are renowned for finishing strongly, and this season is no different.
One day, Everton will have a strong start to the season and do themselves justice.
Over the past few years the Merseyside club have burst into life after January, and climbed to a respectable finish in the top half.
We’ve seen it all before. Everton start poorly, seem destined for a mid-table finish, before a New Year surge sets them off on a late Europa League charge.
Already in 2012 Everton have beaten top five sides Manchester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal have yet to visit Goodison Park, while Manchester United will be grateful they visited the ground in October.
The club also face a home tie against Sunderland in an FA Cup quarter final, and there is an uplifting air around the club, after the gloom surrounding them at the start of the season.
They are unbeaten in seven league games, losing just two of their last ten.
This is the opposite to their start to the season, where they lost four of their first seven, and six of their first ten in the league, including a galling home defeat to newly promoted QPR.
It seems to be the same every campaign, but why?
To us, the principle reason appears to stem from their financial constraints.
It is no secret that the pot at Goodison is hardly brimming with spare cash, with the club crying out for new investors.
Last summer was one of the most depressing for Evertonians, failing to bring in new arrivals until transfer deadline day, recruiting only Denis Stracquarlursi and Royston Drenthe both on loan, while losing midfield fixture Mikel Arteta.
The off-field gloom was only compounded by watching their city rivals Liverpool spending millions on players.
The negativity around the club only made the players and fans tense, worried, and threw them off course, but David Moyes has, yet again, knitted the squad together and got both players and fans believing once again.
It says everything about Everton’s revival that they are just two points behind Liverpool, and have a chance to overtake them by winning the Merseyside derby tomorrow night.
David Moyes has never led Everton to a win at Anfield, but they are the form team going into the fixture, and will fancy their chances of changing that statistic, with Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish failing to get the best out of his expensively assembled squad, despite their Carling Cup success.
Everton were lifted by the short-term loan of Landon Donovan in January, while players such as Stracqualursi and Drenthe are bedding in, and importantly the club were allowed to reinvest a large portion of the Mikel Arteta fee on £6 million striker Nikica Jelavic.
Once again, an FA Cup run has also offered new hope and momentum after the turn of the year.
So yet again the club are looking nailed on for a finish in the top half of the table. There is an outside chance they may usurp Liverpool and even finish as high as sixth if Newcastle also collapse, but the smart money would be on an 8th or 9th placed finish, with a resurgent Sunderland matching them stride for stride.
Now if they could just start the season strongly, which they fail to do each year, then they might give themselves a real chance of finishing in the top six, or even, whisper it quietly, repeat their 2004 success and challenge to finish in the top four.
images: © Ben Sutherland, © isirya, © isirya, © isirya
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