Another home game, another defeat and Everton have yet again failed to turn up at Goodison Park going down to their latest deserved loss, this time against Burnley.
I am really starting to get fed up with writing about these pathetic performances at home. For the seventh time this season Everton have been beaten at the grand old lady and this latest miserable result follows games against Leeds United, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Fulham all of whom have won at Goodison Park and all of whom deserved to.
You would except one, maybe two of these sorts of results in a topsy-turvy campaign like this but that is now fifteen points that have been lost by this team at home to sodes in the bottom half of the Premier League. It’s simply disgraceful.
And although the absence of supporters is always held up as a reason, other teams aren’t this bad at home, except for perhaps thankfully Liverpool.
In a previous article I wrote that I feared the Toffees dreadful form at home was going to cost them European qualification and once again they’ve underlined this with another awful deflating performance that has cost precious points in the race for Europe.
On this display you can certainly forget about the Champions League and even the Europa League, there are better teams than Everton fighting for those places.
Going into this match I was very apprehensive after past displays against sides like Burnley and it felt like exactly the sort of game that the Blues might well lose again. So it proved to be.
The injury to Abdoulaye Doucoure forced Carlo Ancelotti into another team reshuffle and he moved Tom Davies into Doucoure’s position. His absence was hugely underscored tonight.
I would have considered moving Mason Holgate or Ben Godfrey into midfield and keeping Davies in the deeper, central position and move Allan to the other side against an as expected very competitive Burnley midfield.
The home side began brightly enough with a chance for Richarlison but Nick Pope saved well and then the initiative then passed to the Clarets.
Instead of setting out to be defensive and cautious Sean Dyche’s side were positive, energetic and attacking. They were much the better team in the first half and fully deserved their early lead.
Davies was caught on the ball in midfield and from there Burnley created the chance which the ever-dangerous Chris Wood finished well after thirteen minutes.
The visitors then had a good shout for a penalty declined and they were pressing for more goals playing with vibrancy and confidence.
Teams know now when they come to Goodison Park, because they’ve seen it so many times, that Everton will be brittle and under-par and that they can exploit this by attacking the home side. The return of the fans can’t come soon enough.
Then came a brilliant strike from the lively Dwight McNeil. The youngster turned past Allan beautifully and fired in a sublime long range strike past Jordan Pickford.
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Now after going two down and having hardly having been in the game, the Toffees finally responded. A good piece of play saw Davies put in an excellent cross was headed home by Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
But for the umpteenth time this season at home there was a lack of real urgency, commitment and quality, which is hugely depressing to see. Too many players were again way below their best especially Alex Iwobi who was dreadful.
Burnley hit the post and could and probably should, have wrapped this match up by halftime.
After the break the Blues did improve for a short time and pressed for an equaliser and part from a good chance for Calvert-Lewin that he fluffed, they never really convinced that they would get it.
That initial surge soon fell away though and frankly Burnley were comfortable seeing out the rest of the match. They also had further chances themselves to add to their score and had they won by three ot four it wouldn’t really have flattered them.
The Toffees lost Pickford and Joao Virginia came on and apart from one mad-cap moment generally did pretty well making one smart save.
So Everton lost more points and a great chance to take advantage of Chelsea’s draw with Leeds earlier in the day which had they won would put themselves just a point outside the top four.