EFC - Nov-Jan What Should We Expect?

Everton FC - The View From My Seat

Nov-Jan What Should We Expect?

Currently it's the 4th November 2015 and it's West Ham Utd Away next. In an earlier article I discussed and explored reasons as to why we were then, 10 games in and lingering around mid-table. The main reason being the tough ask of playing last years top 7 in the first 10 fixtures. 

So with those games out of the way surely it's plain sailing from here until January isn't it? Well I think we've come out of the first 10 matches of the season in an "OK" position, but it's only OK if we push on and take near maximum points from the next 10 fixtures. The first of which we've already played.... Sunderland 6-2 win. 

So starting from game 11, we've netted 6, looked fantastic going forward, Kone has found his form, Rom looks like he's got a new best friend in Arouna and Deulofeu looks grease lightening. I'm also not estranged to the minor negative that we conceded 2 goals to one of the worst teams in the Premier League and 2 poor goals at that. However if we're going to continue going forward as we did then I can take that, pretty sure Real Madrid did that for years. On a serious note, hopefully we can settle on a regular back 4 and really tighten up.

A trip down south next to hopefully 'Hammer' West Ham Utd.... The Hammers have impressed so far this season finding themselves in 6th spot. Despite their good start however I still feel after our 6 goal frenzy, even away from home we should beat them. Their home form is hazy at best and they've conceded 9 at home already.

After our trip south we host struggling Aston Villa. Villa are a club at the minute in turmoil. They have a very inexperienced backroom team, from top to bottom and I think they made approx 12 signings in the summer. That's a lot of change and when you throw in the recent manager fire and hire too, I'm expecting us to give Remi Garde a very difficult and miserable welcome to the Premier League.

Away at the new boys Bournemouth. Now I've seen a lot of The Cherries this season and in my opinion they have been mightily unlucky not to have a couple more points than they already do. Eddie Howe is a fantastic young manager and has his team playing some great football at times. They are however missing some key players and will be for some time yet. The extra experience and quality in our side should gain us a comfortable 3 points from this fixture.

Barring any changes, Crystal Palace, Monday Night Football at Goodison follows and despite Palace's fast emergence as a solid Premier League side, at home I expect again another win. Their very fast paced attacking players along with Cabaye in the middle of the park can cause problems to any team, but I still fancy a win as anything Palace have I firmly believe we have better.

Norwich City Away is another away fixture where I think to myself, this should be in the bag shouldn't it? The League Cup fixture ending 1-1 with a win on penalties for us, for me can't be taken into consideration. We played several fringe players and Premier League matches are a different beast to that of the League Cup. I look at the Norwich squad currently (Nov 2015) and I see maybe 1 player whom carries any threat, Nathan Redmond. Looks a potential star but the rest of the squad is very average. Must point out Bassong as he's a danger from set plays and has proven so a few times against us in recent years. 3 away points here though surely?

Back to Goodison and hosting Premier League contenders Leicester City. Surely by 19th December James Vardy will have packed in this incredible form, no England player can play that well that long can they? A couple of points on Leicester, one being there is always one team that storms well ahead of their aspirations early doors each season. Then come Christmas they struggle during the festive period and don't reach the start of season form again for the remainder of the season. Is this Leicester City? Another point being, their fixture list. Unlike Everton they're yet to play Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool or US! We meet after they will have played Man Utd (H), Swansea (A), Chelsea (H) then after us they have Liverpool and Man City. Tough run and can't see them picking up many points during this run, hopefully none against us.

This brings us onto our 2 games in 3 days period, Boxing Day and the 28th. Boxing day, a trip to Newcastle and the 28th at home to Stoke. Now without being amazingly biased I honestly believe these two to be 6 more points collected! Newcastle are shocking, they have no known philosophy at present and their team is anything but the definition of team. They are a squad of individuals, a very average squad. Stoke are always tough and although we know we can beat them they fall into my 'realistic thinking' category.

'Realistic Category' - I do believe we can win all 10 fixtures, however.... Are we going to go on a 10 match winning streak collecting 30/30 points? No, we aren't, if we do I will put a months wages on us to win the league! Thus as I mentioned Stoke enter my realistic category where I'd be comfortable dependant on other results during this period with a draw. Away at West Ham is probably the only other tough-ish fixture but we play that after the 6-2 thumping of Sunderland I expect momentum to carry us through. 

So without picking on individual fixtures, as you'd expect the possibility of a loss which I'm reluctant to discuss I'd be happy taking 23 points from 30 - 7 Wins 2 Draws 1 Loss. I'm not being negative just my spin on realism. Over 10 Premier League fixtures you expect an off day, a day where it just won't go in and also maybe a day where the ref gets it wrong etc. However all in all if we're sitting with 39 points after 20 games and we can replicate or better that form second half of the season, we'd be on target for a points tally in the late 70s. 

Wishful thinking, blind positivity or plain madness, let me know what you think. I'm on all the usual social media platforms below. Thanks for reading as always, really appreciate all the feedback I've received :)

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