Everton have another chance to start season well after fixtures release
As the summer transfer window speculation hots up, Everton and all 20 Premier League clubs have seen their fixtures for the coming season, revealed.
The Toffees once again have a start that at least on paper would seem decent and gives them a chance to get points and some momentum early.
Everton host Fulham on opening day and then have home fixtures against Wolves, Arsenal, newly promoted Luton Town and Bournemouth in the first two months of the season.
In theory anyway, Fulham, Wolves, Luton and Bournemouth are all winnable and of course Arsenal were defeated last season at Goodison Park in Sean Dyche’s first match in charge.
However, last season the Blues were actually beaten a staggering ten times at the Grand Old Lady and both Fulham and Wolves were among those teams who left Merseyside with all the points.
Ironically, it was Everton’s improved away form after Dyche took over, that proved decisive in enabling them to still be in contention to stay up right until the final week of the season.
The Toffees picked up a point at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leicester and Wolves over the course of the last couple of months of the campaign.
His counter-attacking approach was working and of course the team produced the performance of the season in thrashing Brighton 5-1 at the Amex Stadium with just four games to go.
Take away those seven points and Everton would have been long gone before that last day victory over the Cherries ensured Premier League football again next season.
Looking then at the initial away matches and again the Blues have a chance to get off to a decent beginning, if they can reproduce those sorts of away efforts.
Aston Villa will be a tough one, but then comes games at another promoted side Sheffield United and then Brentford before the first derby of the campaign, followed by West Ham.
Last season Everton also had a start that looked reasonable and yet they failed to win a single match, until they were eight games in.
Obviously, much will depend on what kind of reinforcements Dyche – assuming he is still the manager – can bring in over the summer transfer window.
And, that might also depend on what ultimately is the consequence of all the change at the club and board level we are seeing.
But, as we all know, Everton must try and get off to a solid start next season as it is so difficult to generate momentum if you don’t get points on the board quickly.