Tony Cottee ‘really sad’ at Everton situation, tells squad to ‘earn the right’ to be Premier League players
Tony Cottee has told the Everton squad to ‘earn the right’ to stay in the Premier League next season, but admitted he is ‘really sad’ at the current situation while speaking to MyBettingSites.
Everton are in the bottom three for the first time this season after defeat to Liverpool last weekend, leaving them with six games to save their Premier League status.
But former Toffees striker and now Sky Sports pundit Cottee shared that while the teams around him are going to struggle to gain points in the remainder of the season, his former side must get a result at Chelsea to have a strong chance or survival.
“You’ve got to earn the right to be in the Premier League,” he said.
“And you have to get results. The performance was improved against Liverpool. A tough game but they were always gonna lose the Liverpool game. And Everton has got some really tough games coming up.
“Their only saving grace if you’d like, is that Norwich and Watford are done, we already know those two are already gonna go. And then you look at it, can Everton catch either Burnley or Leeds?
“Leeds has got some tough games, I think they’ve got City, Arsenal, and Chelsea next three games. So Leeds is not gonna get too many points. And Burnley will always fight. They will fight to stay in the Premier League.
“So Everton has got to try and get some results, I think they’ve got Chelsea at home on Sunday. That is a really tough game for Everton. But maybe you can argue that it is a good time to play Chelsea. Chelsea hasn’t been brilliant recently.
“So if they could beat Chelsea, it is a great story isn’t it? So hopefully they will get the chance to beat them, and if they do, they will have a real chance of staying up.
“But I’m just really sad, and I feel for the fans, cause as I said earlier, they are a really passionate group of fans and they deserve better. But you’ve gotta earn the right to be in the mid-table in the Premier League and not in the bottom three.”
Fight
Fight seems to be the buzzword right now around the Everton squad but that is exactly what is needed from everyone associated with the club.
Whether it be the players on the pitch fighting for their careers and pride, the coaching staff fighting to get things right, the medical staff fighting to get players fit or the fans fighting to support the team as much as possible.
But the squad so far has struggled to show that fight, losing eight games in a row away from home under Lampard and falling into the relegation zone.
Now they have nothing to lose. They can’t fall further than relegation and while they still have a game in hand, their survival is in their hands. They need to make the most of that.
If they can, they’ll have earned the right to stay in the Premier League for next season. If not, it’s because they haven’t shown enough fight.
In other Everton news, View: Three changes, ace makes first start since Jan – Predicted Everton XI v Chelsea
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