Preview Percy is regretting the decision to pack away his thermals as the recent warm spell ended with a vengeance. He did however take time out from digging them out of storage in advance of his trip up north this weekend to file his traditional preview of this weekend’s trip to Merseyside. Sadly...
Next up we hit the M6 for our last ever visit to Goodison Park where we will be hosted by Everton. Kick-off is at 3pm. Whilst trains are running up that way they are subject to a diversion en route so there is a slightly reduced service which will take a bit longer than usual. Check before you leave.
So Everton then. Well After a first half of the season that followed the collapse of a deal for 777 Partners to buy the club (777 seems to have been the company’s bank balance) they were limping along under the stewardship of Sean Dyche, grateful for the existence of Southampton Ipswich and Leicester in the league.
Then, they finally got new owners in the form of the Friedkin Group who had pulled out of negotiations back in August. The second attempt to do a deal went through and the takeover was completed on 19 December.
The new owners got Christmas out of the way and then sacked Dyche. They had won just three of their opening 20 games before David Moyes returned to Goodison. They promptly won four of their next six, since when they have become treble chance specialists. They have drawn their last three games, 2-2 at home to Man Utd and 1-1 away at both Wolves and Brentford.
The resemblance to ourselves is mirrored in their league position which currently places them 15th place with 33 points from 28 games. We have the same number of points but a goal difference deficit of 12 due to them not having had to face Anthony Taylor quite as much as we have.
Obviously they got stung by the PSR regime last season and this, together with the continued uncertainty over their ownership will have contributed to their lack of activity in the transfer market over the winter.
Just the one arrival for Daisy to deal with this winter, that being the loan arrival of Carlos Alcaraz. The Argentinian midfielder had a good first start being credited with an assist and the winning goal in their 2-1 victory over Palace. Daisy tells me that there is an option for them to sign the player full time should he impress.
They have five ruled out of contention due to injury. Most prominent of these are Dwight McNeil, one-time Hammers link Armando Broja and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. All three are out until at least the start of April. They do seem to bemoan the loss of Calvert-Lewin a lot which is odd as, when fit, his record stayed a long way this side of “spectacular”.
Let us move on to the Wild & Wacky World of Association Football. And news from the North West comes in as Manchester United supremo Sir Jim Ratcliffe announced the rationale for his latest round of cost-cutting, claiming that had the tea ladies not been “let go” the club would have gone bust by Christmas.
In unconnected news, Manchester United supremo Sir Jim Ratcliffe announced Manchester United’s intention to move into a £2bn new stadium just up the road from the current Theatre of Tacky Marketing Slogans.
Rumours that Manchester United supremo Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group is to diversify into the manufacture and distribution of miniature violins as demand up and down the country soars are probably false but if that happens I’m on a percentage ok Sir Jim? Meanwhile, the artist’s impression of the stadium was described as “iconic” by the architectural and design set, and as “Butlins Minehead” by normal-thinking world.
And so to us. Well yet another match decided by a referee who seems incapable of getting anything right. My old theory about referees called “Mike” continues to hold water.
Now here’s a funny thing. The FA have spent over a year investigating Lucas Paqueta, their enquiries looking presumably at suspicious patterns that might indicate betting irregularities. It’s the sort of thing that the authorities are constantly on the look out for with players. However, nobody seems to do the same thing with referees, even though they are, arguably, the one group of individuals within the game who can single-handedly influence results.
So nobody is looking for patterns such as the fact that Salisbury has made no fewer than five game changing refereeing errors against us in the last three of our matches he has been in charge of. Or alternatively, nobody is looking at the fact that six out of Newcastle’s last seven goals against us were awarded as the result of refereeing blunders.
Of course I doubt very much that there is any match-fixing involved. I am a great advocate of the principle of Occam’s Razor, the theory that when there are conflicting possible explanations for a state of affairs, the simplest explanation is usually the likeliest.
The inevitable consequence of leaving assessment in the charge of PGMOL rather than an independent body with the power to promote and, more importantly, relegate referees as appropriate, is the situation we have now. When every referee on your books is substandard it is more likely than not that matches will be decided by blunders.
If you are as bad as Salisbury, it’s inevitable that you will mess-up on a regular basis.
Of course this argument is regularly rebuffed by PGMOL who like to portray everything in the garden as rosy – witness those Orwellian statistics they churn out about how VAR nearly always gets it right, based on them deciding what’s right and wrong.
Salisbury’s brainstorms from Monday night won’t make the statistics next time PGMOL decides to blow its own trumpet. Meanwhile, nobody asks the one question that needs asking of PGMOL. Which is: “If our referees are so brilliant as you claim, doesn’t statistics like those relating to Salisbury look just a teensy-weensy bit suspicious and worthy of investigation?” Can’t have it both ways, guys.
Whilst we didn’t do enough to win the game, I certainly didn’t think we deserved to lose it and it was irritating in the extreme to go down to a side we were the equal of.
Onto this weekend and it’s pretty much as you were on the injury front. Michail Antonio is obviously progressing well and it was good to see him the other night. Niclas Fullkrug continues to train and, though it’s likely to be a week too soon for him expect a return to the bench in the coming weeks.
Ditto Vladimir Coufal. Crysensio Summerville is the mystery. Conflicting reports suggest that he has turned down surgery in the belief that his rehab can continue without such intervention. Either way he’s a good few weeks away, still.
So to the prediction then. Well I think we have two pretty evenly matched sides this weekend. Mr Moyes clearly has them better organised defensively though they have gotten out of that initial winning burst as evidenced by recent results.
The reverse fixture finished goalless last year and whilst I don’t expect an identical scoreline this time around, I still think the points will be shared. So the £2.50 that I was going to chuck towards Man Utd so they can hire a few redcoats for their proposed Butlins theme-park will instead be going on a score draw. Put me down for 1-1 if you will please, Mr Winstone.
Enjoy the game!
When Last We met At Goodison Park : Won 3-1 Premier League March 2024
We were a bit fortunate to be level at the break with Areola keeping us in the game with a saved penalty. Beto, who had missed the penalty, gave them the lead just shy of the hour. However, the lead lasted less than 10 minutes as Zouma nodded home from a corner. As stoppage time commenced Soucek gave us the lead with a splendid finish, curling in a shot across goal having brought down a cross from the left. The icing on the cake came at last knockings as Bowen broke out of goal, slipping in Alvarez with a perfectly timed pass, the midfielder dinking the ball over Pickford as he went to ground.
Referee: Darren Bond
Wigan-based he appeared to have been barred from officiating matches involving Liverpool or Everton. However, that ban if it existed seems to have been relaxed. We haven’t had him apart from that Celta Vigo pre-season match we all boycotted. May be a good ref. Unlikely though.
Danger Man: Beto
Inconsistent at best, but we always have problems with those average players.
Percy and Daisy’s Everton Fact Of The Week Type Thing
Everton were top of the league when football was suspended at the opening of the First World War. The same thing happened at the start of WWII. I think we’re safe for this season but I’ll be keeping a close eye on Putin if they win their opening game next August.
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