Everton trap door to open after season-defining week against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest – Richard Keys
Everton have to get points from their upcoming games against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest or the “trap door” will open, says Richard Keys.
Sean Dyche has got off to an encouraging start in the circumstances with two wins under his belt already, but after the frustrating home loss to Aston Villa on Saturday (25 February) finds his side back in the bottom three.
Now, with two games in the space of five days Keys believes this week could be make or break for the prospects of holding onto their Premier League status.
Keys wrote in his Monday (27 February) blog post: “If Sean Dyche didn’t know what he’d taken on he certainly does now. And what a week Everton face – Arsenal and Forest away. These two games could define their season.
“They’ve got to get something from them or I fear the trap door is going to start opening.”
Dramatic
Everton fans are wearily used to being a couple of results from disaster by now, having had to endure it down the stretch last season and now being faced by a similar prospect this year.
With the teams around them starting to pick up results the pressure is now on, but this week won’t keep the club up or send it down because there is still time left.
The trip to Arsenal is clearly going to be a tough prospect given they are currently in line to lift the Premier League trophy, and it will be all the harder to upset them twice if they have learned their lessons from the 1-0 defeat at Goodison in Dyche’s first game.
Forest had been through an impressive climb after Steve Cooper came close to losing his job when bottom of the table earlier in the season.
But they were thrashed 4-0 at struggling West Ham at the weekend so, away game as it might be, Dyche has to be targeting that for points.
As long as other clubs languishing at the bottom of the table continue to struggle the relegation battle will rumble on and on, but with all of the clubs near the drop zone having snapped winless streaks in the past couple of weeks the stakes are now raised not to slip behind.