Declan Walsh

Sun 7 May 2023 8:22, UK

Stan Collymore predicts Brighton to thrash Everton at the AMEX Stadium on Monday evening.

Sean Dyche’s men will have the chance to move out of the Premier League’s relegation zone on the south coast after Leeds’ defeat to Manchester City on Saturday and the fact that Nottingham Forest play Southampton later in the day on Monday.

However, ex-Liverpool forward Collymore is struggling to see how the Blues will return to Merseyside with anything to show for their trip to Brighton.

Writing in the Sunday People (page 60, 7 May), Collymore predicted a 3-0 win for Brighton and said: “Can’t see anything other than a routine home win.”

No chance

We have to agree with Collymore on this one because Brighton are in very good form and are chasing a spot in European football for next season.

Meanwhile, Everton are hardly any better now than they were under Frank Lampard.

Dyche’s appointment hasn’t worked out anywhere near as well as we would have hoped.

Sure, he’s managed to secure big wins over Arsenal, Leeds and Brentford but all of them were with a 1-0 scoreline and it seems that if we concede, we don’t win.

Everton have scored more than once against Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Leicester but all of those games ended 2-2.

There’s a real issue up front but even defensively, we’re not that much better despite that being Dyche’s so-called strength.

We’ve lost three and drawn two of our last five Premier League games, conceding 11 goals in that run.

It’s not terrible but it’s hardly great and due to our woes at the other end of the pitch, we cannot afford to concede at all.