A Change In Expectations

It is a fact that the Premier League is at it´s tightest for many a year as we head into February – are Everton underachieving, or are things not as they seem?

We are all frustrated and what has been happening recently in terms of substitutions and transfer sagas is not excusable. But being a blue through and through I´m not just here for the good times, so I trawled through our past seasons to look at patterns of change in terms of results.

I was surprised to see how many games we lost in the Champions League qualification season. Admittedly, it´s been a while, yet even though this season is a write-off under our new-found standards with Moyes there still seems to be a progression in the right direction.

As of today we have only been defeated 6 times this season and looking at the run in I don´t expect us to lose more than 3-5 games which would put us on par with some of our best performances (for not losing) since 1987. So, it seems we have become much more difficult to beat…

However, there is of course a flip-side. The reason we are where we are (although looking at the table i still fancy us to finish no worst than 11th or 12th, 7th at best), is due to a lack of potency.

Davey, I trust you, you´ve changed how this football club is perceived, and just the fact that we´re so angry at being in the bottom half is testament to how our expectations have changed. But please, please sort out our front line.

I agree with the sentiment that we won´t get a better loan signing in than the Yak. In my opinion, Davey has shot himself in the foot with that one.

It´s not all gloom boys and girls. A team with 6 defeats going into february would historically be challenging for a Champions League place; we are too good to go down.

It´s also testament to the squad that he´s built that Fergie and Wenger thought we´d challenge for top 4 this time around, that´s why we´re all so upset. Let´s put it in context.

COYB.

Year/League Postion/Defeats

2010 8th (defeats 9)
2009 5th (defeats 9)
2008 5th (defeats 11)
2007 6th (defeats 10)
2006 11th (defeats 16)
2005 4th (defeats 13)
2004 17th (defeats 17)
2003 7th (defeats 13)
2002 15th (defeats 17)
2001 16th (defeats 18)
2000 13th (defeats 12)
1999 14th (defeats 17)
1998 17th (defeats 16)
1997 15th (defeats 16)

Special thanks to the author: Warzycha´s Caterpillar

Read the full thread and post reaction on our forums – http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/33413-A-change-in-Expectations-If-you-Know-your-history