Murphy’s Law is an adage that has circulated for centuries. If one takes a look at Everton, one can say that Murphy’s Law is working overtime. The Toffees are on a miserable run and they just can’t catch a break.
The start to Rafa Benitez’s managerial stint reflected shades of optimism, passion and winning mentality as the Toffees were unbeaten in the first four games of the season. That’s when the wheel of fortune turned into the wheel of misfortune and with every spin, adversity struck the side.
In terms of results, Rafa Benitez’s side has just taken two points out of a possible 18 in the last six games. Their last win came against Norwich City on September 25. They have been winless in the past six games and have been humiliated by relegation battlers Watford at Goodison. There is a sense of abject hopelessness among supporters.
The enormous decline in results is not because of the manager or his incompetence. Rafa Benitez is a fantastic manager who has an outstanding track record of restructuring sides and making them competent but sadly his hands are tied because of the wafer thin squad depth and miserable injury record.
Everton have terrible luck with injuries
When the Spanish boss had a fully functioning and a fully fit squad, the Toffees were taking huge leaps, coming back from losing positions to blitzing out goals but as soon as the injury bubble burst, the Toffees saw some of their most important pillars of the team get sidelined for weeks.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Seamus Coleman, Jordan Pickford, Fabian Delph, Andre Gomes, Tom Davies, Yerry Mina, Alex Iwobi and Lucas Digne have missed matches at some point of time since September due to injuries.
Calvert-Lewin, Doucoure, Mina, Gomes and Davies remain still remain sidelined and there absence has left Everton in an extremely vulnerable state. The Toffees are in a middle of a storm and it just keeps getting worse.
Everton lost 3-0 away to Manchester City, looking like a soulless side with no thrust in their tanks. If losing wasn’t enough, more things have gone wrong in the space for 90 minutes. With City unsurprisingly dominating the possession and Everton being reduced to just sitting and defend, the striker Richarlison was getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of attacking involvement.
He barely had any service and was cut a frustrated figure on the pitch. Exasperated by the events, the Brazilian committed a rash foul and earned a yellow card for his offence, taking his total tally to five yellow cards which subsequently earned him a one match suspension. Benitez will now be without Richarlison and DCL in the away game against the newly promoted Brentford.
To add more misery, Everton’s one of the best players so far, Demarai Gray, who managed to keep himself fit amid the flurry of injuries around him, also fell prey to an injury. There has not been much clarity over how serious the injury is but he was forced to come off early in the game as he held his groin in pain.
Whatever can go wrong, is going wrong for Everton. They travel to Brentford without Richarlison and Gray, chances of Doucoure and Calvert-Lewin returning are grim, they have just one win in the last nine games and to top it off, the Toffees head into the toughest season schedule of the season.
Could it go any more wrong for the Merseysiders?