MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: Jordan Pickford of Everton and teammates acknowledge the fans after their draw ing the Premier League match between Manchester City FC and Everton FC at Etihad Stadium on December 26, 2024 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
The Everton players and staff salute the travelling supporters at the Etihad Stadium after the 1-1 draw at Manchester City
The winter of discontent that many doom-mongers forecast for Everton has not materialised and for the third successive fixture, Sean Dyche’s men have put a spoke in the wheel of a Premier League title challenger. Perhaps his counterpart across Stanley Park, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot might be tempted to send the Blues boss a belated Christmas present after all the neighbours have done to help them this month?
The Merseyside Derby of course fell victim to Storm Darragh but after many feared the worst for Everton after a daunting-looking sequence of fixtures over the festive period began with a 4-0 thrashing at Manchester United, the supposed ghosts of Christmas present have failed to provide the predicted scares.
It’s one thing holding what you already have to secure stalemates against Arsenal and Chelsea, but here at the Etihad, the Blues had to show both character and courage to come from behind and earn a share of the spoils.
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Part of the beauty of the Premier League is not just its overall quality as world football’s toughest domestic division but also the competitiveness of all its fixtures.
Plenty of Evertonians were twitchy that their side had not accrued enough points from their supposedly comfortable start to the season and flapped when they looked at what was on the horizon.
But while those previous games were never going to be so ‘easy’, by the same token, these more recent encounters have not been lost causes.
It’s not an emphatic four wins on the trot like last December when Everton started the month bottom of the table after their initial 10-point deduction and there is still lots of work to do to try and move clear of the danger zone.
However, with all of the big guns now taken care of, it’s just surprise package Nottingham Forest, against whom the Blues started that aforementioned revival last year, that stand in their way before 2024 is out.