Sean Dyche, manager of Everton, looks on as he speaks to the media prior to the Premier League match between Everton FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC at Goodison Park. Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Sean Dyche, manager of Everton, looks on as he speaks to the media prior to the Premier League match between Everton FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC at Goodison Park. Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Outside Finch Farm the rain heaved down and the gloom settled on this countryside nook on Merseyside’s border with Cheshire. Behind the gates of the training ground, however, a warm glow lit the car park and all of a sudden the walls of the complex looked like shelter from the storm, rather than the epicentre of another crisis.
It is amazing what a win can do. Sean Dyche said in the aftermath of the 4-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers that ‘goals change opinions’. He is right, to an extent. But while he has prosecuted the case that the displays and results of the past few months have provided more support for his approach than those outside of Everton may have been willing to give credit for, it was becoming increasingly difficult to appreciate his point as Everton went through the whole of November without scoring and then started December with that collapse at Old Trafford.
How Everton are doing and what recent performances have suggested is a debate that will continue to rage but one thing is currently clear, the Blues have a five point buffer to the relegation zone and in a season that is viewed as one last push through the years of crises that have engulfed the club, that is deemed to be enough.
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No-one should be complacent about this one win, just the third of what even Dyche accepts has been a disappointing start to the campaign. The upcoming fixtures remain daunting and had Jorgen Strand Larsen been more potent then it could have been a different story.
It wasn’t though, and that matters. The consequence is a victory that has provided reassurance, the sense of which was clear in the pre-match press conference ahead of the weekend’s Merseyside derby.
In key areas such as goals, set-piece threat and even at the back, the Wolves win appears to have acted as a reminder - from Dyche to the world and from his own players to themselves - that this side can be effective.
It is a key message going into the final Merseyside derby at Goodison. The win has provided breathing space, a slice of respite for everyone to just take a step back from the trouble that looked set to overwhelm the club but which Everton have removed themselves from - for the time being at least.
For Dyche, the win acted as vindication of his ability to squeeze the necessary results and performances to achieve the basic expectations he faces but which still pose a challenge given the difficulty of the circumstances he has had to, and continues to, work with.
And for a manager that speaks about the importance of his players having ‘freedom’ as they seek to score, it means the upcoming games can be viewed as an opportunity.
Questions over the style he employs to get results often plague Dyche but all of a sudden the heavyweights on the horizon mean supporters are likely to be more willing to embrace the tactics he takes comfort from. And the five point gap Everton now have to the bottom three means it no longer feels there is a crushing inevitability the club will spend Christmas in the bottom three.
Now, regardless of what happens in the weeks to come for the Blues, Ipswich Town or Wolves need to find two wins for the chance to push Everton into the relegation zone. And it should be remembered that of the matches to come, Dyche won the home games with Chelsea and Liverpool last season and was a controversial last minute VAR call from an impressive point at Arsenal.
The win against Wolves does not render the recent discourse around Everton and him as wrong, or no longer relevant. But it has given him, his players and this club a chance to approach the derby with more hope than seemed possible after the defeat at Manchester United. At Finch Farm, where the Christmas decorations are now up, a fighting spirit has been rekindled just at the right time.