In football, there are plenty of ways to get into bad streaks because of how infrequently matches are played. In other sports like basketball or baseball, you don't often run into obscure runs, either positively or negatively, for the opposite reason.
And so it wasn't odd to see this very odd stat from FotMob regarding Everton's recent history in the window between Christmas and the start of the new year.
"Everton haven't won a Premier League match between Christmas and New Year since Boxing Day 2020."
Even that aforementioned match wasn't the most alluring football game in recorded history. It was a 1-0 win over Sheffield United in an empty stadium, with the lone goal coming from Gylfi Sigurdsson in the 80th minute. Everton would finish that season in 10th place under Carlo Ancellotti, while the losers on that day were relegated.
The Blues would lose the next match, on New Year's Day, to West Ham by the same score.
There were no matches during that period at the end of 2021 and into 2022 due to the World Cup being played in November and December of that year. They lost 2-1 to Wolves at Goodison on Boxing Day 2022 and then drew away to Manchester City 1-1 on New Year's Eve.
The 2023/24 campaign saw matches against those same clubs, with a home loss to City on December 27 preceding an away loss to Wolves three days later. Everton gave up six total goals in those two matches.
Last season, it was City again with another 1-1 draw on Boxing Day, with a loss to Nottingham Forest at Goodison coming almost a year to the date of this year's post-Christmas meeting with the Reds.
Everton will need to overcome a recent run of poor form, having not scored a single goal since the 3-0 win over this same Forest side at Hill Dickinson Stadium at the beginning of December.
But overcoming the post-Christmas bad showings is more important than just ending a strange run during a random slice of the season. Everton could climb up to the top half of the Premier League table with a win, something that will show prospective January transfers a little about their ambition for the remainder of the season.
And, of course, it would be nice to end this strange form during this particular period if only to create a happy feeling heading into the start of 2026.