Dramatic home form turnaround saves Everton season after nightmare campaign

Everton made sure of a seventy-second consecutive season in the top flight of English football with three games still to go after victory yesterday over the Bees.

Considering the tumultuous and hugely unsettling campaign we have seen, one of unprecedented upheaval and chaos, that is a serious achievement.

And the key to this turnaround has been the revival of the Toffees home form, which has seen the team win four straight matches at the Grand Old Lady, scoring six and conceding none.

This is significant as Everton's form at Goodison Park had been a key reason why the team had struggled to generate any momentum this season.

At the start of the campaign the Blues had lost four consecutive games at home, which had straight away put the side in a serious situation given that a decent start is so important, especially when your team is likely to struggle.

Taking away the loss to Arsenal, who may well win the Premier League, the Toffees had been beaten by Fulham, Wolves and Luton Town in three of those matches.

Everton eventually beat Bournemouth at Goodison to end their win-less run at home. But that was only followed by a further two wins on Merseyside during December.

2024 saw a record-breaking thirteen straight win-less matches, a run which put the club's survival severely into question.

In that time I among many others were increasingly critical of Sean Dyche's approach and his seeming unwillingness to adjust his tactics and team selection to try and create and score more goals.

The manager stuck to his guns and then came a trip to Chelsea which ended with a horrendous six goal thrashing that seemed to underline in every way just how much trouble the Blues were in.

In that match Dyche's team had played a bit higher up the pitch than has been usual and got badly caught out. So perhaps the manager has a point!

On the back of that result it was clear that unless somehow the manager and players could find a way to turn things around, then Everton were going down.

And so to this week and a superbly sustained run of results that started with a one goal win over Burnley and then last weekend's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the 'deduction derby'.

That was then followed up by a season-defining victory over Liverpool last Wednesday night as the Toffees finally ended a near fourteen year hoodoo against the old enemy.

Then finally yesterday, the Blues managed to overcome a stubborn Brentford side and in doing so sealed Premier League football at the Grand Old Lady for one last campaign.

Now we must hope and believe that the final season at Goodison Park will be at least be a chance to celebrate with a decent team the history of the great old ground and look forward with some optimism, before the much-heralded move to Bramley-Moore Dock.