Andy Gray expresses ‘relief’ after Everton confirm Premier League survival
Everton confirmed their Premier League status with a 1-0 victory over Brentford, and Andy Gray believes their survival is a positive end to an “otherwise troubled” campaign.
The beIn Sports pundit was pleased that Everton stayed up but bemoaned that the club have been involved in relegation battles during each of the last three seasons.
Everton were victorious thanks to Idrissa Gueye’s 60th-minute strike, establishing an unassailable 11-point gap to the relegation zone.
Speaking to Richard Keys, Gray said: “It’s not a feeling of great joy. It’s a feeling of relief more than anything, and you shouldn’t be feeling that at the end of every season.
“It’s happened too many times that I’ve stood at the end of a season and gone ‘well, we made it’, but this shouldn’t be happening to Everton year in, year out.
“It shouldn’t be like that for a club like Everton, but sadly, it is.
“I’m delighted for the football club because it would’ve been a tragedy if they’d gone down, and that’s a small comfort in an otherwise troubled season.”
Everton seal Premier League survival with Brentford win
Everton may have been mired in and around the bottom three for much of this season, but Sean Dyche’s side have stood tall in April, winning four of their last five matches.
Four home games at Goodison Park have yielded four wins, six goals scored, and zero conceded, providing Everton with some hard-fought and much-needed points, none more so than a 2-0 victory over arch-rivals Liverpool in the Merseyside derby.
Against Brentford, Gueye stepped up to score for the second time in a week at Goodison, smashing home from close range following a goalmouth scramble on the hour mark.
Everton also rattled the crossbar twice while pushing to double their lead; Dwight McNeil and James Garner both coming within just inches of sealing a comfortable win.
As Dyche knows though, it doesn’t matter how the wins come as long as they do, and after leading Everton to safety with 12 points from a possible 15 in April, he and his side will, like Gray, be celebrating tentatively for the rest of the season.
In other Everton news, an “appalling” behind-the-scenes development has emerged on Farhad Moshiri with the 777 Partners takeover in trouble.
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