To be honest in the end I’m not sorry to finally see the back of this season, but the manner of this defeat for Everton is a truly depressing finish to another campaign that for a while promised much and once again delivered nothing.
At the Etihad Stadium today Everton subsided to a 5-0 loss, their worst of the season, as the massive gulf in class and quality between them and their opponents was underlined again. Today’s defeat just provided further evidence, if any were needed, of how far this team has to go.
To top it all off of course Liverpool won and secured Champions League football again, once more emphasising the difference between our two clubs.
Back in March the Blues were in the driving seat and to the casual observer they looked the more likely of the two Merseyside clubs to get a top four place. Being Evertonians we are never that foolishly optimistic though and once again that pessimism has been proved to be justified.
The Toffees fell to a final finish of tenth place today, which is lower in the table than at the end of Marco Silva’s final season and only three places better than last season. It really is an awful let down once more.
So I suppose we have to briefly cover this afternoon’s events. The performance was a dismal as the weather at the moment and from the start Everton were certainly very much second best as the champions exhibited all the quality and attacking panache they possess.
Kevin de Bruyne opened the scoring – what a player he is – before he created the next goal for Gabriel Jesus and after a missed Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty (symbolic really of the season) City scored three more in the second half as they ran amoke.
They brought on Sergio Aguero for his cameo and of course the Toffees duly obliged as he netted twice to round off his outstanding career in style, at Everton’s expense. Only a good stop from Jordan Pickford prevented him getting a hat-trick.
The truth is it was never likely the Blues would get something from this match and it’s not a total disgrace to lose to this City side they’ve been head and shoulders above everyone else this season and are well deserved league champions. But again it’s the manner of the defeat and the lack of energy, effort and pride that is so disappointing.
This final day defeat obviously extinguished any lingering, slender hopes of Europe next season although I’m not exactly devastated to have failed to qualify for the Europa League Conference, a derisory tournament if ever there was one.
Actually, if there was any justice, none of the clubs who have got a top four place today should be allowed to keep them after the disgraceful fiasco of the Super League. Conviniently the media and the FA seem to have forgotten all about that now and will no doubt be fawning over their favourite clubs, especially Liverpool’s, success. Well never let anyone talk about bitter Blues!
The fact is though Everton have thrown away a fantastic chance to get at least a top six place this season with the series of catastrophic home defeats they served up.
As we’ve said before those Goodison Park losses to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle United, Fulham, Burnley and Sheffield United have proved disasterous.
Converting just half of those losses to wins and a couple of draws would have put the Toffees right slap bang in the top four today.
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The fact supporters have, absurdly in my view, been denied the chance to watch live football all season (bar a few games in December and then the last few now) has proved especially costly as the stats show Everton are unbeaten at home when there were home fans at the Grand Old Lady.
So imagine if it had been a normal season, would we today be celebrating a Champions League finish and maybe even a trophy? We will never know.
On the flip side though you have to say it’s unlikely this team have won so many away games if the surreal conditions we have experienced had not existed.
After all it doesn’t seem a total coincidence that Everton ended the more than twenty year waits to win at Anfield and the Emirates this season when there were no fans inside those two hoodoo grounds.
Anyway, that’s it the end of the 2020-21 Premier League season and the Blues wait for success continues. Another huge summer in the hurly burly of the transfer market now looms for Carlo Ancelotti and Marcel Brands as they try to revive this permantly sleeping giant of a football club.