Everton Season Review: The Great Escape

A magnificent, fighting turnaround against Crystal Palace in the penultimate game of the season completed their escape from the shockingly real threat of relegation; and while every Everton fan will look back and call the season a disappointment, their feelings right now will be of simple elation.

For a club with the kind of investment and statute of Everton, it was stunning to see how close they actually came to being relegated from the Premier League and having narrowly survived, the club and fans will be delighted to go into the summer to rectify the wrongs and prevent a repeat.

The sheer scale of relief and joy at Merseyside was embodied by the emotionally-charged scenes of pitch invasion 5 minutes before the full-time whistle in that game against Crystal Palace. In almost a must-win game, Everton were whimpering to another defeat going into the break 2 goals down but showed their spirit and their appetite for a scrap with a sensational turnaround – a game that embodies the story of their season in a lot of ways.

Going back to the start of the league season last year, Everton had secured themselves a huge managerial coup with Carlo Ancelotti and a combination of his star power and investment from the ownership had brought James Rodriguez from Real Madrid and Allan from Napoli – two big-name, European-competition quality footballers.

The mood at Merseyside was as upbeat as it had been in a long time and they went on to start the season with real swagger, James Rodriguez wasting no time in influencing games and Calvert-Lewin showing the goalscoring instincts his potential had shown glimpses of.

Fast forward 12 months and the mood could not have been any more different. Carlo Ancelotti left Everton in a lurch late into pre-season planning when the managerial job at Real Madrid came calling. After much deliberation and against the wishes of passionate Evertonians everywhere, the ownership decided to go with former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez at the helm.

While friction with fans was inevitable over the unpopular appointment, the strong-headed coach went on to alienate James Rodriguez who was moved on. Then in a piece of gross incompetence, was backed in his issue with Lucas Digne by having a sale sanctioned for him before being given the sack himself just a week later.

So that’s where Everton found themselves mid-season. Their best defender in Lucas Digne had just been sold to Aston Villa, Calvert-Lewin was struggling for fitness and so the goals had dried up and then despite having been backed strongly in matters at the club, Benitez was given the sack when he failed to turnaround a spell of 9 defeats in 13 games and 6 points off the relegation spots.

Morale was extremely low as Everton failed to find results even as the club took its time to find a suitable replacement. Subsequently, just days before the winter window snapped shut, Frank Lampard was hired. With mere days of the window left to work with, the club secured the signing of wantaway Spurs midfielder Dele Alli and secured a loan deal for Donny Van de Beek but even then, clear doubts remained as to how the club’s porous defence and lack of goals had not been addressed.

Frank Lampard tried to bring positivity to the Toffees’ football, something they sorely lacked under Benitez. However, patching up a defence isn’t his strongest suit so after a brief upturn in results, the porous defence and lack of discipline reared its head again and Everton got to the final 5 games of the season odds-on to be relegated. An outcome that would surely have been emotionally and financially devastating for the football club.

Ultimately, Everton kicked into survival mode and followed on a win against Manchester United with a win over Chelsea, capping off their great escape in that eventful and incredible second-half turnaround against Palace in gameweek 37.

Survival and a bitter-sweet 16th-place finish. Their underlying data across the season shows they were 14th best on expected goal difference per 90 at -0.31 which – beyond the huge relief of survival – might provide the tiniest sliver of encouragement that their underlying performances might’ve merited a slightly better finish.