At the Amex Stadium today Everton produced another lacklustre performance and went down by a single goal to Brighton and Hove Albion.
This defeat brings 2018 to a less than satisfactory conclusion for Everton supporters after a year that truly has been one to forget.
It’s very frustrating to see how inconsistent the Blues have become recently. Getting spanked at home by Tottenham then racking up five goals at Burnley before slumping to this loss on the south coast.
Such inconsistent form will leave Everton treading water at best in the Premier League and a mid-table finish is most likely outcome for this season.
That would mean that the Toffees could finish lower than they did at the end of the last campaign when Sam Allardyce got the sack.
No one would suggest Everton haven’t made some progress under Marco Silva and there have been plenty of green shoots in evidence at various points in the season.
The Toffees have shown more attacking intent and quality, producing at times some really good football. There were even signs of a more solid defence in the making until recent lapses and heavy defeats.
But it does sometimes, no almost always, feel like two steps forward, one step back with the Blues at the moment.
In the opening weeks of the season Everton were scoring goals but couldn’t stop conceding them either. Then they improved defensively only for the goals to start to dry up at the other end.
In this game at Brighton the Blues had enough chances to get something from the match but again their finishing let them down. This has been a recurring theme of recent weeks too.
Perhaps we shouldn’t take too much from a single performance like this one. Everton have played three games in the space of a week and a bit of fatigue might have something to do with the poor effort today.
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But there are worrying signs that the improvement experienced under Silva over recent weeks might just be stalling. A match like Brighton away is the kind of game an emerging side needs to show they can win.
At any rate it seems clear that yet more signings are going to be necessary before the Toffees can hold out any hope of becoming truly competitive again.
The January transfer window opens in two days and I expect Everton to one of the busier clubs in the league during it.