December may have begun in disastrous fashion — not for the first time in our history! — but that shouldn’t detract from how good November was for the Blues.
We started with a win at New Three Point Lane against Spurs on the first, beat Wolves then Burnley on either side of the international break, before holding Arsenal to a draw despite going down to ten in the first half. Three wins and a draw is good in any month, and in November, it was good for the best record in the league … and good for a nomination for Manager of the Month.
Maresca does have strong (and quite a lot of) competition for this honor however, with Fabian Hurzeler also collecting 10 points with Brighton, and Mikel Arteta maintaining his charge towards a title with Arsenal at the top of the table, unbeaten with two wins and two draws during the month. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola, Unai Emery, and Marco Silva all won three of four with Manchester City, Aston Villa, and Fulham, respectively (a distinctly more noteworthy accomplishment for the latter).
You can vote for Mister Enzo here.
Speaking of crowded fields, there are eight nominees for November’s Player of the Month award, including one Reece James, whose absence was keenly felt on Wednesday night. But Reecey needed a rest after putting in such tremendous shifts the previous week, most notably against Arsenal. James started three of the four league games in November, which feat alone should deserve some award after the last few injury-hit years.
You can vote for Reecey here.
And no, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is indeed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall among the nominees! And he also got nominated for Goal of the Month! KDH is certainly enjoying himself at Everton after such a middling season at Chelsea last year. Happy for him.
Oh, and Guglielmo Vicario got nominated for Save of the Month for his tremendous save against João Pedro late on in our win against Spurs. That was very annoying at the time, but we won anyway, so now we can recognize it fully for its excellence.