There’s a chance on Saturday to do something we’ve only done once this season, do the double over a team. After Burnley, only Aston Villa and West Ham remain on that score. It’s been that sort of season.
A moment of madness from Seamus Coleman cost us a fourth straight league win last weekend, but at least we remain unbeaten, something I think we can carry on to the end of the season. There were positives from the game against Swansea, most notably the return of Steven Pienaar, who gave everyone a timely reminder of what he brings after he replaced Leon Osman in the first half. We scored a well worked goal, and there were other impressive periods of play. It’s a shame we never capitalised more.
So it’s Burnley up next at Goodison. I can’t say I’ve seen too much of them to be honest. An impressive win against Manchester City last month has been followed by 2 defeats and draw, with no goals. They find themselves in 19th place and prime candidates to go down. Their biggest threat is obviously Danny Ings, who has 9 league goals to his name this season. They also, however, possess former Everton man Lukas Jutkiewicz, who has failed to score for Burnley since joining them last summer. You couldn’t write this stuff.
The win against Burnley earlier in the season was one of the few games Samuel Eto’o actually turned up for. Two goals from him and one from Lukaku secured a 3-1 victory, one of many false dawns we’ve witnessed.
For this game, it looks like Lukaku will be making his return to the side. It’s safe to say Arouna Kone hasn’t exactly seized his chance in the Belgian’s absence. Indeed, he was lucky not to see red against Swansea. Perhaps he was trying that bit too hard to impress, but you have to wonder what will happen in the summer with him.
After getting injured against Swansea, Leon Osman looks as though he’ll make it as well. Aiden Mcgeady is also back in contention, for its worth. In fact, apart from Darron Gibson and Tony Hibbert, pretty much everyone is back in training. This game may come too soon for Oviedo, however.
So it’s the same drill as the QPR game, they’ll be fighting for their lives so we need to on it from the first whistle. I think if we get the first goal though, that should be enough for us to control the game. I say that, but it’s now 19 points we’ve lost from winning positions this season. We really need to work on our game management, particularly when we get in front. For a team that is supposed to be based on controlling possession and the game, we’ve been pretty poor on this front.
The game against Burnley though provides an opportunity to assertive ourselves early on and dictate the play. It would also be nice to finally get over that 40 point mark at long last. Make it happen, Everton.
