Everton: 2017-18 season a lost opportunity
While all the speculation over a new Everton manager continues endlessly let’s have a look back at last season and try to honestly assess the Blues’ efforts.
First of all we’ll begin with the last part of the Ronald Koeman era at Everton.
It all started with so much optimism as the Blues kicked off the season very early with their Europa League qualification games in July.
There was real hope that the club would be able to compete for honours and maybe even, whisper it, a top four spot.
Everton’s first match of the season was way back on the 27 July when they took on a team called Ruzomberok at Goodison Park. The Blues won an uneventful game 1-0.
The return fixture also finished with the same score as the Toffees progressed, if rather unimpressively.
The Toffees kicked off their Premier League season with a win at home against Stoke City. The team had laboured to the victory, once again raising questions about their form.
But it was a happy return for Wayne Rooney who headed in the winner in his first league game back in a Toffees shirt since he re-signed for his boyhood club.
Everton then won again in the Europa League, though the Blues were not very convincing but it was a win.
Next up Everton travelled to Manchester City and produced what was probably their best performance of the entire season.
Playing with resilience and energy the Blues held out superbly against all City’s attacks, although City did miss two penalties. They even snatched a first half lead through Rooney before City eventually found an equaliser late in the match.
So far so good and Everton were getting results even if they weren’t playing great football.
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But then it started to go wrong. The Blues lost four games in a row conceding goals almost constantly and failing to score a single one of their own.
The confidence seemed to visibly drain out of the players as they slumped to defeat after defeat.
Apart from wins against Sunderland and Bournemouth at Goodison the Blues seemed to be in freefall.
The final straw for Koeman was the 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal on October 22nd.
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Everton were abject as Arsenal skipped round and through the Blues defence almost at will. It was obvious that things could not be allowed to continue like this. And so Koeman was sacked just 24 hours after the game.