Following that fantastic win against Manchester United on Easter Sunday, Everton are yet again travelling to London for this weekend’s Premier League game at Crystal Palace.
So the big question is will Everton turn in yet another one of those awful away efforts like at Fulham, or can they manage to maintain their excellent home form and win away again.
Its become something of an unwelcome theme this season that the Blues have shown some seriously schizophrenic form when playing so-called ‘better’ and then lower league opposition.
Against the top six the Toffees have reserved their best and most impressive performances whilst seemingly keeping their very worst efforts for those sides they should be regularly beating.
Critically the Blues need to maximise their points haul if they are to have any chance of securing 7th place and European football next season.
Of course getting a Europa League place would represent a genuinely mixed blessing.
I think it is critical for Everton’s development to be playing European football on a regular basis. But having to get motivated for starting competitive football in late July is far from ideal. This is when you want to be upping your pre-season training regime ready for another gruelling Premier League campaign.
Starting your season so early generally proves to be a major problem for every team that does it, witness Burnley’s struggles this season and the Blues own difficulties last season.
I would prefer Everton were free to have a clear run at the domestic trophies next season and pull out all the stops to win either the League cup or FA cup. Next season it will be a quarter of a century since the Toffees last got their hands on a trophy; that has to change.
Winning one of the two domestic prizes would not only end that unwelcome drought but give Everton entry into the Europa League at a much more reasonable stage.
Anyway back to this weekend’s match at Palace.
Everton seem to have been playing London sides forever and after this one they still have another away game in London as the team’s campaign finishes at Tottenham’s brand new ground.
Tomorrow’s opponents Palace had a tremendous result of their own last weekend as they beat Arsenal away to secure their Premier League place for another year.
The south London side have had a quiet, underwhelming season overall. Despite languishing in the bottom half of the table for most of the year they have never really looked in any great danger of the drop.
Although they’ve lost seventeen games, Palace have rarely been overwhelmed and the majority of their matches have been won or lost by the odd goal or two.
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As usual for sides in their position the biggest problem has been scoring enough goals. Talismanic forward Wilfried Zaha is the team’s biggest attacking threat although he’s only got 9 goals not really enough of a return for a player of his quality.
Palace have tried to increase their firepower signing Michy Batushuayi in the January window, a player Everton were linked with at the time. But he hasn’t made much of an impact either.
So at least on paper given their respective positions the Blues should, should win the game. Obviously that’s something we’ve said several times over in these match previews.
But if Everton can find anything like their current home form then surely this time the points should be in the bag..?