Roberto Martinez’s Toffees becoming a bit unstuck this season

It’s now no win in 6 league matches for Roberto Martinez’s side as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat to a Swansea side that has Francesco Guidolin at the helm for the first time. He masterminded a vital away win for The Swans which leaves Everton sitting in a lowly 12th place in the Premier League table.

It’s such a strange season for Everton though, the 4th highest scorers in the league this season but also the 4th leakiest Defence, they’ve only won 6 games all season. They seem to be the draw specialists of the league this season with 11 out of 23 games ending in a share of the points. That’s the highest of any Premier League side and just under 1 game in 2 ending in a draw.

For Everton’s relatively decent start to the season it certainly has cooled as of late with Everton failing to win a game since Boxing Day when a last minute goal secured all 3 points at Newcastle. What it more worrying is the fact they have only won 3 times at home this season in the league

For all the attacking prowess of Romelu Lukaku and creative industry from players such as Ross Barkley they seem to be let down by their defence. Twice this season they have conceded goals in the 98th Minute which has led to dramatic 3-3 draws. Maybe it’s due to the Manager’s playing philosphy that this is happening, being 2-0 up away at Chelsea you could argue that they would be better off being pragmatic and shutting up shop to secure the win.

You could admire Roberto Martinez for sticking to his principles but these principles are proving to be quite costly in terms of their league positioning, are there same shortfalls that saw Wigan relegated showing their face again at Goodison Park. I’m not suggesting that Everton will get relegated this season but they are certainly underachieving

Yet it’s not all doom and gloom as they are still in the F.A. Cup and also have a slender advantage of Manchester City in their Capital One Cup Semi Final clash, maybe Everton’s season is all but done in terms of League Football and Martinez is going to put everything into winning some domestic silverware, a bit of a risky strategy especially if they come away empty handed.

They’ve certainly missed Captian Phil Jagielka this season when he was out through injury, but Leighton Baines has also been below par this season and is not quite the set piece threat he was from season past, every team gets injuries to key players but with Everton it seems to hit harder due to not having the strength in depth of the other top sides.

This is now Martinez’s 3rd season in charge and if Everton continue to languish in the bottom half of the table then you have to wonder how much longer he will be at the Goodison Park helm. Thankfully for him he does have a good relationship with Chairman Bill Kenwright but there are certainly murmurs of discontent after each home game at the moment and if this patchy form continues then the murmurs will turn into boos and the pressure will be turned up further. It’s going to be an important few months for the 42 year old Spaniard.