Everton can basically clinch survival with win over Bees

Tomorrow Everton face a match at Goodison Park against Brentford which if they win, will almsot certainly effectively secure Premier League survival.

Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw at Watford was frustrating as victory at Vicarage Road could have all but guaranteed that survival for Everton taking the pressure off tomorrow’s game and the next home game against Crystal Palace.

Of course other results could still impact on this situation with Leeds form and results particularly crucial to the outcome of this nail biting run-in.

But, obviously the Blues’ can’t rely on others’ results to secure their future and it’s ultimately in their own hands.

Well, the Toffees’ have two matches at Goodison Park to get the job done starting with this fixture against the Bees.

This is the return match against the team that in the previous game represented the moment when I felt Everton needed to make a change in manager.

That 1-0 defeat in London back in November highlighted all the problems that had built up under Rafa Benitez.

The Blues’ were timid, lacklustre and overly defensive, conceding the initative and momentum and Benitez failed to make any positive changes when the outcome of the match was still in the balance.

It didn’t happen then and things dragged on until eventually Benitez was fired and Frank Lampard tool over at the end of January.

Now, with just three matches to go in the season and despite some very real improvements over the past few weeks especially, Everton are still not out of the woods.

Going into tomorrow’s game the Toffees’ are in good recent form overall and unbeaten in the last three having also only lost one of the last six matches, the derby against Liverpool.

Lampard has several injuries to contend with of course. The most irritating is the latest problem with Yerry Mina which means he is out of contention for tomorrow. Fabian Delph is also going to miss out, which is a big blow given how crucial he’s become in the past few games.

On the plus side Ben Godfrey might be able to play having been out for a few weeks. In addition, midfielder Donny van de Beek is also in contention.

I imagine Lampard will be minded to pick a similar side to the ones he has been going with in the past few weeks.

Everton have been playing with much greater energy and urgency, pressing well and several players have been in outstanding form.

Jordan Pickford in particular has been in sublime form in goal and his world class performances between the sticks might well prove the most important single thing on the pitch that keeps the Blues’ up.

We also need to see Evertonians maintain the epic support from the stands that they have provided over the past few weeks. That has galvanised the players and proved a key factor in the recent improvement.

So, three more points should be not only possible, but given the generally excellent home form we’ve seen from the Toffees’ winning three of thier past four games at Goodison, it should be very achievable. Fingers crossed then for a positive outcome and relief from this constant stress.