Everton executive chairman Marc Watts (R) looks on next to interim chief executive officer Colin Chong during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Chelsea FC at Goodison Park on December 22, 2024
Sean Dyche may well have told The Friedkin Group what’s needed on the pitch in his initial meetings with Everton’s new owners. But their representatives will have got a glimpse themselves on an afternoon that continued the feel-good factor flowing through the club.
The Blues, fired-up by this week’s seismic events off the pitch, were full value for their 0-0 draw with a Chelsea side who, let’s not forget, would have gone top of the Premier League with a sixth straight top-flight victory.
Yes, Everton were grateful in the first half to Jordan Pickford, who not for the first time on this ground, was the Stamford Bridge outfit’s nemesis.
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But the Blues’ seventh clean sheet of the campaign - which is now the joint most in the Premier League - was ultimately comfortable.
After a shocking start to the season defensively, bar from that horrible aberration at Manchester United, Everton are back to their mean best, as Chelsea and Arsenal have now found.
It gives the team a huge foundation to build on. However, the Friedkins, for whom new executive chairman Marc Watts watched on from the directors’ seats, saw first-hand the issue at the other end of the field.
The Blues have now failed to score in nine matches this season, which is the most in the Premier League.
To their credit, Dyche’s side, roared on by a Goodison Park crowd incensed by the officials, upped the tempo in the second half and only a brilliant block from Tosin Adarabioyo denied the excellent Iliman Ndiaye a certain goal.
But by that stage Jack Harrison should already have opened the scoring. Not just Harrison, but Everton are lacking the killer touch.
And if it can’t be found in the current squad, the Friedkins will have to provide the funds, PSR permitting, to solve it.
But that profligacy was a minor quibble at the end of a week when everything changed for the Blues, hopefully for the better.