The 2020-21 Premier League season has ended and following their fine start Everton again ultimately disappointed, failing to qualify for Europe or break their quarter of a century without a trophy.
So what are we to make of a campaign that saw the most away wins since the last season Everton were champions, but also a bewildering number of home defeats too?
This was surely the most unusual season in football history with the whole Covid situation of course playing a fundamental part in that. No fans in stadiums for most of the season and a hectic schedule of fixtures with games at almost any and every day and time, made for a series of results that probably won’t ever be replicated.
At the start of the campaign, perhaps for the first time in a long time many Blues fans had a cautious optimism that maybe, just maybe, we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
After so many dreadful seasons of at times utterly embarassing failure and consistent underachievement, perhaps now with a coach who had won virtually every prize in the game, the Toffees might at last begin to turn the corner.
Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment was still enthusing most Evertonians and the general consensus was he and the club had spent well in the summer.
Critically, they had added steel and athleticism to a chronically weak and underperforming midfield with the signing of Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure.
While the addition of a genuine global superstar in James Rodriguez, although somewhat of a gamble, seemed symbolic of the new profile and pulling power of the club now that Ancelotti was in the dugout.
With all the upheaval and uncertainty of the whole season this was a huge opportunity missed by Everton that we might well regret in future years.
Lets start with the positives and the away record, which was the best since the Blues last topped the table at season’s end and claimed the old First Division Championship in 1986-87.
Traditionally the Toffees have been poor travellers with a pretty dreadful away record especially over the past few seasons. Most depressing of all it had been over twenty years since they had won at Anfield and the record in London was even worse with a quarter of a century having elapsed since Everton were victorious at Arsenal and Chelsea.
That away form turnaround began on opening day with a win at Tottenham Hotspur, for the first time since November 2008. It proved the first in a series of away-day milestones.
On that sunny afternoon in north London Everton seemed a team transformed from the drab and ordinary sides that had so often kicked off a campaign in the past.
The Blues were playing in a new-look 4-3-3 and played some terrific, flowing and incisive attacking football orchastrated by Rodriguez while Allan and Doucoure bossed the midfield and injected desperately needed energy and workrate.
In addition, Dominic Calvert-Lewin who scored the only goal, was embarking on a hot streak in front of goal that would see him catapulted into the England squad.
More wins followed and the goals kept coming with five scored in successive matches against West Brom and then Fleetwood in the league cup before four more were added against West Ham and Brighton as Everton’s great start continued.
Crucially, the Toffees were still winning away too as in-between those thumping home wins, they also ground out a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace.
The Palace result seemed to indictate this team had the quality to win in style when in top form but also the grit to secure points playing a bit ugly as well. Whisper it but was it possible that at last the Blues had found a winning formula that could end the long, long wait for success?
Well after seven straight victories, a feat in fact not managed by an Everton side since the nineteenth century, came the first international break of the season.
After that break things were never the same again and try as they might the Toffees couldn’t replicate that combination of flair and steel for the rest of the season.
Injuries were a big part of that of course with the international matches and then a relentless Premier League fixture list causing all the Blues first-choice players from this first month or so to miss chunks of the season.
In particular the regular absence of Rodriguez, and Allan’s constant fitness problems were telling as two key components in Everton’s fast start spent long periods out of the team.
Without the two South Americans and others such as Seamus Coleman, Everton reverted to type and started losing far too easily again as they were beaten by Southampton, Newcastle and Manchester United in successive games.
A nervy 3-2 win at Fulham was followed by the first of those home defeats that would ultimately prove so costly as the Toffees lost 1-0 at Goodison to Leeds. Then came a laboured 1-1 draw at Burnley and it felt as though the season was beginning to come apart as the Blues attacking sparkle had gone while defensively they were leaking goals far too easily.
Carlo Ancelotti had to take action and so he decided to revert to a much more defensive counter-attacking posture and unvieled a four centre-back defence when Everton faced Chelsea at the beginning of December.
Chelsea were beaten 1-0 at Goodison Park, the new-look team was rock solid defensively and suitably opportunistic in attack. A win at high-flying Leicester City followed and then Everton beat Arsenal as well before taking all three points at struggling Sheffield United.
So twelve points and only one goal conceded from a penalty and it seemed as though the season was back on track. This new-look defence was performing well with makeshift left-back Ben Godfrey in particular outstanding filling in for Lucas Digne.
This formation and tactical approach now continued away from home throughout the rest of the season and brought historic and long overdue wins at Anfield and the Emirates Stadium as well as notable successes at Wolves and a point salvaged at Old Trafford. At last the Toffees seemed to have overcome their chronic away-day blues.
Obviously the absence of fans inside grounds is a key factor, how much of a factor we’ll see next season and that will be a truer test of whether Everton have actually turned around their usually awful record away from home.
Now to that deadful home form. Eight defeats and four draws at Goodison Park is a terrible record and means a staggering total of twenty eight points were lost at the Grand Old Lady! Claiming just ten of those points would have got them a Champions League place, that’s a measure of the missed opportunity this season has represented.
So what went wrong? Just as with this team’s away performances and results, the lack of fans played a big part in this, perhaps even a decisive one. After all Everton were unbeaten at Goodison when there were fans back for a brief period in December and then right at the end of the season.
But is that the whole story because every club had to cope without their home support and apart from the relegated teams, basically the Blues record was the worst in the League.
And in many of those home defeats the performances were utterly abysmal with the players showing neither the determination, ambition or quality to beat a succession of sides much lower down the table than them.
A catastrohic series of defeats to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle again, Fulham, Burnley and just recently Sheffield United have proved sobering for supporters and so costly for the team.
By the end of the campaign it was almost comical as opposing sides came to the Grand Old Lady got a one goal lead and then sat on it while the home team crumbled and slumped to what seemed inevitable defeat.
Ancelotti has to take some of the blame as he kept chopping and changing the team and formation in his vain search for answers.
But the primary responsibility must be with the players. They have too often shown no desire or commitment to the cause and in game after game seemed to just accept the latest loss almost with a literal shrug of the shoulders.
That and the lack of leadership both on and off the poitch seemed as much of a reason for the terrible results as a lack of ability, although there are plenty of questions there too.
In particular players like Alex Iwobi, Andre Gomes and Glyfi Sigurdsson were too often annonymous or just plain poor and had hugely inconsistent seasons. These players lack the drive, energy, pace and quality necessary for Everton to compete properly in the Premier League.
Once again this campaign has highlighted how many truly ordinary players are still picking up a big wage at Goodison Park while continually failing to perform.
But as well as moving out these players and bringing in better quality footballers with those missing qualities they also have to define how they want to play and make sure they have the right players to make their chosen football philosophy work.
So in conclusion this was a strange, schizophrenic season full of weird and unexpected results although in the end the usual suspects, more or less, came out on top.
Ironically Everton did what they always do too as the Blues falttered to deceive after raising all our hopes and once again settled for mid-table mediocrity as they have so often in recent years.
The sense that this is a club that simply doesn’t have the nous or even ambition to truly challenge the top sides keeps returning. Too much big talk and too little actual achievement on the pitch seems to be the Everton way these days.
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Like many Evertonians I’ve had have had enough of these false dawns and the endless groundhog days of seasons that occasionally promise something before turning out to be another false dawn.
Crucially the tactical template was in evidence at the start of the campaign as the Toffees found a winning approach but couldn’t sustain it as they simply don’t have enough of the players with the qualities to make it work properly.
Now comes another massive summer transfer window where the club simply must get their recruitment right. They have to ensure we don’t go through yet another campaign of wasted chances, overpaid and underperforming footballers and widly inconsistent performances that drive you crazy as a fan.
That’s the challenge for Farhad Moshiri, Marcel Brands and Carlo Ancelotti. If they can’t get it right now then even a manager of Ancelotti’s experience and nous might not be able to turn this tanker of a club around and bring success back to the blue half of Merseyside. If that’s the case, where do Everton go from there?