The ECHO's Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas looks back to two big Monday night games of the recent past ahead of an important one against Manchester City
Dwight McNeil celebrates after Alex Iwobi scores Everton's second goal during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Everton FC at The King Power Stadium on May 1, 2023. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Dwight McNeil celebrates after Alex Iwobi scores Everton's second goal during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Everton FC at The King Power Stadium on May 1, 2023. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
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Friday brought with it the three-year anniversary of Everton's chaotic draw at Leicester City and everything that came with it.
That was some night. Seamus Coleman rousing the away end from his stretcher. Dominic Calvert-Lewin holding his nerve from the penalty spot. Jordan Pickford with perhaps the biggest save in the club’s history.
It was an exhausting night for everyone associated with both teams but one that Everton fell the right side of. Although they would return to the Premier League before their more serious crash, it seems surreal to think of where the Blues are now as they push for Europe and how the Foxes will spend next season in the third tier.
They were some hair-raising moments for Everton and right now, as we head towards the club's seventh Monday night game of the season, that pair of Monday matches from May 2023 - the bizarre 5-1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion came seven days later - seem like they were both yesterday AND a lifetime ago.
The Blues once again head into the final weeks of the season with something to play for and, while David Moyes’ team are no longer a frontrunner in the battle for Europe, the prize is very much still there.
Given the way they unfolded, it is tough not to view Liverpool and West Ham United as missed opportunities. Few of those teams around Everton took advantage, though, and so the league table looks far worse than it is - the Blues start this weekend in the bottom half but still just three points from sixth, which could yet yield a Champions League place.
They have one of the tougher fixtures this weekend though, and this may well be a return to some of the darker days of 2022 and 2023, of watching to see how rivals fare before Everton kick a ball.
But just like those turbulent experiences, for all the frustration of recent weeks, the Blues clearly do have a resilient strain. One point from nine is an annoying return since the international break that the club entered with such hope but there are positives that can be taken from elements of those performances.
Moyes certainly thinks that, telling me at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Friday afternoon: “I thought we performed well at Brentford. Overall we gave away a really early goal in the game which didn't help, a poor goal. We played really well at Brentford and got something from it and it kept the momentum going.
“I thought actually we performed well against Liverpool but on the day things didn't quite go for us. I think the West Ham one was a difficult one, they were on a bit of an up. And even that, I thought we were the better team but we didn't do enough to score enough goals. So I actually think the last three games we've done quite well.
“The points total doesn't suggest that. But there's been other games where we've taken points, earlier in the season where I'd say we didn't think we played that well but we got a great three points out of the game.
“But it's crunch time and we want to take points, we want to find a way of winning. You don't need to be playing great at this time of the year, but you need to be picking up the points. I actually think that we've been playing quite well but have not been picking up points.”
I’m not sure I can be quite so effusive about the last three displays - I think there have been good moments within them but Everton have also been complicit in some of the defeats.
For all the frustration those results have been laden with, there has been good resilience throughout. The Blues have come from behind in all three of those games and in the two they lost, they were seconds from a point. Add two points to the tally now and the table looks much more appealing.
That is important. The hope has to be that after not playing *that* well and almost getting good results, Everton can maintain that resilient streak and find a way to push through for these final four games.
They have done it on Monday nights in May in the recent past - and at least now the context is far happier than at the King Power and the Amex.