Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Everton arguably had a make or break seven days last week, two big games against their biggest rivals Liverpool and Manchester United. A maximum point haul from those game would have meant that their hopes of a Champions League place would have been severely boosted.
But unfortunately for Ronald Koeman is was a week to forget for his Everton side as they only managed to pick up a solitary point from those two games. A tally which means that they will have to make do with Europa League form next season.
Compared to where there were that is still a solid achievement for Koeman as he all but secures a third straight qualification for the competition across both Southampton and Everton and he will look to solidify that 7th place when champions Leicester travel to Goodison Park.
They were outclassed in the Merseyside Derby last Saturday but have to consider them incredibly unfortunate not to have come away with all three points on Tuesday night when they made the trip to Old Trafford. It looked like the win was secure only to see a 94th minute penalty awarded against them.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic stepped up and duly obliged from the spot to give United a share of the points and send Everton back to Merseyside feeling somewhat robbed. After two games without a win the key now for Koeman will be to get his side back to winning ways.
But that is not going to be an easy task as they face a Leicester side who have a 100% record under new manager Craig Shakespeare. He is the first British manager to win his first 5 Premier League matches in charge and will look to make it 6 this afternoon.
There is a slight caveat in that 4 of those 5 wins have come at The King Power Stadium but that is not to take away any of the hard work in which he has done since taking over the hotseat from Claudio Ranieri. So much so that The Foxes are now just two wins from safety when at the end of February the situation looked a lot worse.
What with Shakespeare only working in the currency of victories it meant that this busy past week has bought nothing but a maximum points haul. Wins over Stoke and Sunderland had seen them move into the 11th place in the table at the start of the weekend.
Due to the congested nature of the table between 9th and 16th that is unlikely still to be the case by the time this game kicks off but after such a good run of form as of late, Leicester will certainly have their tails between their legs and will look to force them into the top half of the table by the end of the weekend.
That’s not forgetting though that Leicester do have a Champions League Quarter Final in midweek so whether or not Craig Shakespeare uses this game to rotate the squad is something to be considered, it may mean sacrificing the perfect record but it will give them a better tilt at getting the better of Atletico Madrid.
If Shakespeare does utilise his squad management techniques for today’s game then it will undoubtedly play into Everton’s hand and if that is the case then I can only see Everton bouncing back to winning ways and solidifying 7th place. I’ll go for a home win this afternoon.
