Everton have chance for good start to new season

The fixtures for the 2021-22 Premier League season have just been released and Everton have a chance to get off to a good start.

All six of the opening matches Everton have, would be considered ‘winnable’ at least on paper and so if the team can get going quickly they can establish some important early momentum.

The Toffees open their campaign at Goodison Park on August 14th against Southampton before travelling to Elland Road to take on Leeds United next.

The importance of starting a new season strongly can be over emphasied, but getting points on the board early does often make a difference in how successful the campaign will be overall.

The Blues have traditionally not been great starters to a season and this has sometimes resulted in a difficult campaign as the team struggles to generate momentum and climb back up the table. That actually wasn’t the case last season as ironically the Toffees had their best ever start since the nineteenth century. But being Everton they still found a way to mess it up in the end!

Anyway, looking at these opening six fixtures out of a possible eighteen points, it should in theory be possible for Everton to pick up ten or twelve at least.

Matches against the Saints, Brighton away and then Burnley at home before then facing newly promoted Norwich City should all be games to look for three points. Leeds and Aston Villa away, although tricker ones, are also fixtures where points should be gained.

However, last season the games against supposedly weaker teams were precisely the matches that the Blues were least successful in. Home defeats to Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle United, Fulham, Burnley and Sheffield United combined to sabotage Everton’s season.

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We have to hope that this was largely just the consequence of the absence of supporters and there was evidence that whenever there were any fans in Goodison Park the team were characterised by much greater energy and commitment. And Everton were unbeaten in those matches.

Let’s hope that whoever is in charge, the players he sends out onto the pitch at the Grand Old Lady on opening day can reproduce that effort.

Getting a good start will be doubly important this season because of course the team will be led by a new manager.

This is especially the case given that whoever it is he’s not going to have the stature of Carlo Ancelotti and he will probably have a considerable amount of work to do to win over large sections of the fan base.

And if reports are true that the club are still talking to Rafa Benitez for example, then despite his credentials as a coach, he will need a very good start to appease the large number of Evertonians who would oppose his becoming manager. His tenure could come unstuck pretty quickly if results don’t go well early on.