Dyche plays down need for Everton to beat Leeds United today

Everton manager Sean Dyche has claimed that today’s Premier League clash with Leeds United at Goodison Park is not in fact a ‘must-win’ game.

In some pre-match remarks Dyche has said that regardless of this afternoon’s result, Everton can still gain the points to turn their season around and avoid the dreaded drop.

Technically of course, the Blues’ boss is correct and even a defeat today wouldn’t be fatal just yet, to the Toffees’ hopes of avoiding relegation.

However, a loss at home to the Yorkshire side, especially if it is by two or three goals to nil, would of course be hugely damaging to Everton.

It would leave them five points from safety (which feels lile a massive mountain for this team to climb already) and adds to the negative goal difference, something that might prove crucial at the end of the season.

Staying in touch with the teams around you particularly ones just above and outside the drop zone, seems vitally important and losing ground on them even with games to spare, would I think be very hard to recover.

And, there is the pyschological aspect to consider as well. If these players lose against Leeds, we might see a return once more to that familiar relentless tailspin of poor form, which has undone so many past managers.

After all, as if to underline the point we witnessed an exemplar of that type of performance at Anfield on Monday.

A heavy defeat at Goodison would also be very hard for supporters to take after so many recent home loses, and might well undermine any lingering hopes for some that this sinking ship can be turned around.

Last season the passion and sheer will of the fans was a critical element in driving the team over the line and escaping the drop. It was particularly the white-hot atmosphere generated at the Grand Old Lady late on in the campaign that proved so important.

No one though wanted to go through that again a year later. And yet, here we are facing a similar, arguably even more challenging situation.

This season we’ve seen yet another terrible run of form ultimately lead to the latest managerial change, which was then followed by a truly farcical end to the transfer window leaving a relegation battle once more for the remainder of the campaign.

This infuriating and almost unbelievable groundhog day of relentless failure and misery, has I suspect, left increasing numbers of Evertonians (including me) with a sense of inevitable doom.

Having been let down yet again by the club’s owner, board, manager and players, is there enough of that commitment left in supporters to repeat that effort this time around?

Hopefully so, and these next two home games against teams that are in theory beatable, will surely prove immensely important in shaping the eventual outcome of the campaign.

A win would be a big boost for morale all round and would restore a little of the momentum that Dyche seemed to have generated after the Arsenal performance and result.

Three points this afternoon also takes a little bit of pressure off next weekend’s match against Aston Villa, which would become an almost unbearably demanding occasion for players and fans, if Everton don’t win today.