Everton Dream Of A Bright Future

Annnd breathe…

Boy, did they make us sweat. A campaign that provided more grey hairs than Premier League points dragged us through every available emotion. A season-long nauseous see-sawing between hope and despair. Rage, elation, expectation and desperation violently jostling for position over 40 long weeks. Gallows humour at last left homeless on a euphoric spring night in the Gwladys Street End.

So dare we dream of a bright future given such a chastening close shave with relegation? Doom-mongers may predict further struggles to come but the green shoots of spring and our recent club history suggest otherwise. The Toffees of 2004-05 followed a relegation scare and the loss of Wayne Rooney with a successful bid for Champions League football. And while last term was tough, it was not terminal. But, for now, let’s put the future on hold and look back at a rollercoaster that seems a lot less scary now they’ve let us off it…

A brief stint for Benitez

Carlo Ancelotti’s shock departure, which came just days after the completion of Everton’s 2020-21 campaign, paved the way for a tricky 12 months. The venerated manager returned to Real Madrid, leaving behind a leadership void that would soon be filled by Rafael Benitez – a controversial appointment given his history with fierce rivals Liverpool. However, Benitez got off to a strong start, winning four of his first seven Premier League games as Everton manager and losing only once. Indeed, a well-deserved early October 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford left Everton fourth in the table and just two points behind leaders Chelsea.

However, progress stalled as injuries began to bite. With Richarlison in and out due to injury and suspension while Dominic Calvert-Lewin was ruled out until the new year, the attack suddenly looked threadbare. In midfield and defence, injuries to the likes of Yerry Mina, Fabian Delph and Andre Gomes undermined solidity. And it showed as Everton nosedived after their Old Trafford trip with a run of one win and nine defeats in 12 league games.

Those who were never willing to accept a former Liverpool manager into Goodison grew increasingly vocal and as the 12-match run unfolded others began to join calls for Benitez to leave. The tense situation reached boiling point in late January as a humiliating 2-1 defeat to rock-bottom Norwich saw the Toffees drop to just two places off relegation at the halfway stage of the campaign. The situation was unsustainable and the axe fell on Benitez’s short reign.

The arrival of Frank Lampard

Benitez’s replacement, Frank Lampard, was something of a surprise appointment but Toffees supporters welcomed him with open arms, encouraged by his positive approach and a managerial style based on aggressive pressing and attacking with width. After the cautious football seen under Benitez, Evertonians were aching to see their team play on the front foot.

However, Lampard would soon discover the size of the task ahead of him as he stepped into a dressing room riddled with injuries and containing a squad struggling for form and shorn of all confidence. For now, implementing a favoured style and system would have to wait – securing safety was the clear priority and it was to be achieved by any means necessary.

Most expected him to replicate the high-energy 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 systems he used at Chelsea and Derby but, presented with an understrength defence leaking an average of more than two goals a game, Lampard instead initially opted for a pragmatic 3-4-3. The formation delivered in Lampard’s home debut – a 4-1 FA Cup thrashing of Brentford delighting the Goodison Park faithful – but then crumbled in his first Premier League match as Everton manager, with the Toffees falling to a 3-1 defeat to fellow strugglers Newcastle United.

Lampard the Tinkerman

The loss to Newcastle sent Lampard back to the drawing board and the return to fitness of Calvert-Lewin presented him with a dilemma – his team craved solidity but also needed enough threat to unsettle the opposition. An attacking 4-4-2 did the job comfortably against a brittle Leeds side but was cut apart too easily in the following game against Southampton, with the Toffees losing 2-0 on the south coast.

Next up, a daunting clash with Manchester City and, with the luckless Calvert-Lewin again injured, Lampard was once more forced to change system – the switch to 4-3-3 his third formation in just five matches in charge. The Toffees put in a decent performance but lost 1-0 to an elite opponent.

A pattern had been set for Lampard’s early tenure. The new Everton manager changed formation in nine of his first 11 games, with his off-the-ball set-up varying from high press to low block as he sought a system that would best fit his squad. But with the availability of key men changing from week to week and confidence low, Lampard was forced to learn on the job in crash course fashion. The pressure was on as the Toffees slipped towards the bottom three – the former England midfielder had to find a solution.

Spring salvation?

A combination of low confidence and poor finishing sent the Toffees on a damaging run of six defeats in seven, culminating in a 3-2 defeat at Burnley that left Everton just three points above second-bottom Watford. With Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and two meetings with Leicester to come in the next five games, pundits and bookmakers alike started tipping Everton for relegation.

But Lampard’s men weren’t about to roll over and accept their fate. Instead, they stepped up in style to beat a Manchester United side who had previously lost only once in 11 outings; academy product Anthony Gordon crashing home the only goal of the game to send the home fans wild.

The cruel luck that had plagued Everton’s season looked set to continue in their next game. Leicester grabbed an early lead at Goodison and held on for dear life as chance after chance went begging for the Blues. However, at the very last, Richarlison broke through to equalise and claim a vital point.

The Merseyside derby followed, with the 2-0 scoreline a harsh reflection on a battling Everton performance. Even harsher was that the defeat plunged Everton into the bottom three.

Next up; a Chelsea team who had lost just twice away all season and were scoring more than 2.5 goals per game against bottom-half opponents. But the Toffees, shorn of defensive stalwarts Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey, stood firm. Richarlison’s energetic display returned a well-deserved goal but it was Jordan Pickford who proved the star of the show with a series of stunning saves to seal a crucial 1-0 win.

Confidence restored, Everton went to Leicester with new hope and Vitaliy Mykolenko’s delicious volley sent the Toffees on their way. Unperturbed by a swift Patson Daka equaliser, Everton restored their lead before half-time. The second half saw Pickford continue his fine form, with a pair of world-class stops among seven saves as Everton held on to earn their first away win in eight months.

The nightmare run had yielded a scarcely believable ten-point return. Thanks to the inspirational form of Pickford and Richarlison, a moment of magic from Mykolenko and the never-say-die tenacity of the supporting cast, Everton had dragged themselves back from the dead.

The final hurdle

Everton had navigated their horror run but were still just a point and two places above the bottom three. With a game in hand and just four games to go, safety was within reach – but the intense pressure of a relegation scrap made a few more twists and turns seem inevitable.

And so it proved. The game in hand was squandered – three points slipping from Everton’s grasp with a frustrating 0-0 draw at relegated Watford. Worse was to follow against Brentford, when the party atmosphere in the Gwladys Street End was silenced by an on-pitch implosion – Everton’s early lead undermined by a harsh 18th-minute red card for youngster Jarrad Branthwaite. The ten men battled well but couldn’t hold on, slipping to a 3-2 defeat in their penultimate home game of the season. The Toffees’ relegation scrap was going into the final week.

With two games to go and a win needed to guarantee survival, Everton’s Thursday night meeting with Crystal Palace looked massive. A trip to top-four chasing Arsenal on the final day looked a tough assignment, so every Blue on Merseyside knew it was imperative to get the job done early.

The Toffees could not have made a worse start to their biggest game of the season. Brittle confidence and big-match nerves contributed to a nightmare first half in which Palace raced into a two-goal lead. The game looked lost as in 74 previous attempts Everton had never once managed to turn around a two-goal half-time deficit to win a Premier League game. But the Goodison Park faithful were about to witness a footballing miracle.

First, Michael Keane showed a striker’s composure to poke home and reduce the deficit to 2-1. Everton pressed hard for a second but couldn’t find a way through. But then, with 15 minutes to go, the pressure paid off – Richarlison’s deflected shot looping past Jack Butland to lift the roof off Goodison Park.

But Lampard’s men weren’t finished. With the crowd roaring them on, Everton pressed on in their pursuit of Premier League survival. And then, with just five minutes left on the clock, the moment arrived. Demarai Gray whipped in a delicious cross and Dominic Calvert-Lewin launched himself forward to thud home the winner. A season of frustration was forgotten in an instant. The stands erupted in elation. Relief rolled down the terraces and tears of joy cleansed Toffee souls. Everton had done it. At long last and in glorious style, Lampard had dragged the Blues to safety.