Relegation

[Liam-EFC]

My only hope is that I can’t see Leeds going away to Brentford and winning.

 

[davek]

It's going to take a monumental effort plus refereeing decisions going our way to get a win on Thursday given our resources for the game.

Thursday for me will be more of an anxious wait for the Burnley result.

I really dont think they are a team that finds the net too easily and Newcastle are awkward gets. Leeds have a mountain to climb greater than our one against Palace and Arsenal.

 

[willo30]

But if it can be a 3-0 defeat for Burnley on Thursday and if they win 1-0 versus Newcastle that makes their points and GD the same as ours if we draw with Palace.

We beat them here by a greater margin than they beat us up there in our two fixtures (which I think next determines who takes the drop?).

Unlikely, of course.

EDIT:

then again, I'm not factoring in Arsenal whacking us away!

Why are everyone writing off the Arsenal game.

They are not good under pressure which they will be for a result.

 

[BlueToff]

That's the saving grace.

Palace away from home are pretty good though because of their pace on the counter;

View attachment 165795


7 defeats in 18.

They're a good team.

They've also only won 10 games this season, just like Everton have.

Chelsea hadn't lost away from home in what, 12/13 games until the other week?

I'm not confident, which is why I've been such a prat to people in the last few weeks about getting above and beyond and looking at next season, because I was very scared of complacency in the fanbase - not because it'd rub off on the team, but because it's Everton and it ALWAYS comes back to bite us. Look at Brentford players taking the p*** of the stupid fireworks the other day (which for a 16:30 KO, makes no sense).

But I'm not going to treat Crystal Palace like it's Liverpool or City. We need to turn in the type of performance we did v United, Chelsea, Newcastle to a lesser extent. Just try and grind it out. It's all on Thursday. If we do that we're safe. If we don't then we're relying on other teams and that ultimately is a flip of a coin.

 

[Drico]

palace are very beatable, only man city and liverpool are in a different category in this league.

it's just annoying that a draw won't guarantee safety too

Yes, a draw would be easier to achieve, but given that Lampard struggles to find a balance between knowing when to attack and knowing when to defend, at least the target is clear this time: we must win.

Of course, that means no gung-ho stuff from the off and getting caught on the break - like yesterday. He needs to keep it tight for the first half and then have a proper go. A draw is of little use to us in my view. The risk-reward suggests we need to go for broke.

 

[davek]

I've just watched it back. There were two Everton players in the box and two outside the box, plus the player who crossed it in, upfield.

There were five defenders.

One of those defenders makes a mistake. It gets punished.

But, it shouldn't have ever happened, as it was a blatant foul on Richarlison.

It wasn't exactly the charge of the light brigade, Dave.

...all on the half way line or just inside it.

That was reckless.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

because I was very scared of complacency in the fanbase

"It's in our hands"

 

[davek]

Why are everyone writing off the Arsenal game.

They are not good under pressure which they will be for a result.

True. But I'm writing it off because of our resources.

 

[kev]

I still think we will survive, but that is simply because both Leeds and Burnley are even worse than us.
I just want this season over.
Watching football should be fun. I can't remember the last time I watched an Everton game and actually enjoyed it free from worry. Every game sees my blood pressure through the roof and my nerves shattered.
Even the recent wins against Chelsea and Leicester (enjoyed the results, but couldn't relax and enjoy the games until the final whistle)
Even next season I doubt that I will be able to relax until we have 40 points on the board.
Hopefully we reach that as soon as possible and then I can actually enjoy watching games again.

 

[BlueToff]

...all on the half way line or just inside it.

That was reckless.

And poor from the players involved - especially the more experienced - Coleman should be pushing Branthwaite back, Holgate should be shuffling over to double on Toney. Branthwaite shouldn't get the wrong side.

And the referee should award a clear penalty.

 

[Nymzee]

 

[NathDogg]

We’re now only a few dodgy refereeing decisions from going down.

They just need to find a way to ensure we don’t beat Palace, and gift Leeds or Burnley a win in either of their games and we’re gone. They’re more than capable of that.

We’re lower mid table without the refereeing corruption this season easily

This is my real concern, especially after that showing from Oliver yesterday, it was so blatant. They don’t have to try to hard to make us loose on Thursday, in spite of our own deficiencies that we are all aware of. People can call me a tin hat wearing nut, but the evidence has been there in plain sight all season.

I have never bought conspiracy theories, but I'm really struggling to explain this season. It just feels weird to me, like these decisions are barely believable, and they are always followed by a mass backing of the officials in the media.

The bandwagon rolls on today, Everton have no right to complain as Oliver got all the calls right! - Richy and the defender were handbags/sixes and sevens and not a pen according to clattenberg (we know where his loyalties lie), and even the comments from the experts on motd2 last night played the incident down - same happened after the city handball and the joke non-pen in the derby, where the media backed the refs and var - it’s a farce.

We got 2 pens at Burnley, a pretty soft one against Brighton and one yesterday. Lost all 3 games.

They were all penalites mate, regardless of how the games finished, and yes I agree we haven’t helped ourselves due to having a terrible squad of players and that useless Spanish fraud doing his best to kill us from within.

There’s simply no counter argument- we have been penalised and affected much more than other teams in and around us by big calls being wrong and not going in our favour, and it’s happened far too many times for it to be just mistakes, especially as we have var to supposedly ensure the correct calls are made - it’s what the bloody system was designed for but it’s just added to the corruption and bias.

 

[BlueToff]

"It's in our hands"

It was more I listened to a few pods, saw a few people just acting like it was over, like we could all forget about this season and look forward to next, already thinking about the summer. People can't help themselves, it's natural I know, but it's also stupid - because clearly they've forgotten just what this club is and how bad this team is.

 

[davmaher]

Palace and Arsenal are not my biggest worry, my worry is the premier league and their bosses at SKY.

They have now shown they are bare faced and calculating cheats and have no shame or fear of putting us down.


We have been bad this season by our expected standards but we really would be above Southampton now but for the blatant cheating from powers that be who have nobody to answer to, nobody. No ombudsman or anything to rectify wrongs.

Look lads, I am not a conspiricy ball bag, it's there for all to see. The pen against City got universal air time, a more blatant hand ball is hard to see, yet it never went to VAR. It goes to VAR for us if one of our players hands is within a foot of the ball in the box.

There's so many examples of this behaviour against us this season to analyse.
Yesterday? 1-0 up, looking comfortable and well on top with half an hour gone, cruising it.

Then Richarlison gets his shirt ragged off his back when he's going for goal, not a sausage we got and not a peep from VAR.
Us going 2-0 up was simply unacceptable to them, it was never going to happen if they could in any way deny us.

I blame our players a bit here too, they put no pressure on the ref and VAR to act. 22 arms should have gone up in the air instantly with loud vocal calls, not doing so eases things for VAR to ignore it.

The sending off was just a fluky bonus for them, it was the correct decision by the book and against Everton that innocent tangle of legs by the last man only had one outcome, we play to different rules than the top 6.

The tackle and sending off of Rondon? instant red, no thought about it from the ref, instant. Yet Richarlison has been subjected to far worse treatment and career ending challenges than that this season, often without a booking being given.
The player made it look like a double break shin high challenge, Rondon got his foot, double footed maybe-ish, but not a red.

Bitter? Not really. Just a bit sad for the team, Frank and the fans that we just get no breaks from this treatment, it's never ending.

Maybe they owe us one now, maybe they will give us a bit of payback and redress the balance against Palace.

Sadly I doubt it, if we are to win on Thursday it has to be squeaky clean and unVARable if we score.

We have been crap this season, the squad isn't good enough but they don't deserve this.

Truly sinister goings on have done us.

Why would the Premier League and Sky want us to be relegated? We bring in more revenue for them than Burnley or Leeds. If you think the game is corrupted to that level why do you bother with it? I wouldn't. The reason we are near the bottom of the league is that we are not very good, to put it mildly. The Rondon tackle was a straight red. He admitted it himself in his apology after the game. If it had been in reverse I would have been apopleptic if there was no red card. It was an idiotic challenge and 100% deserved a red card.

 

[willo30]

True. But I'm writing it off because of our resources.

They're like us in a way where they just can't get themselves over the line when needed.

Good team when at it but that show against Spurs was something we'd do.