By Paul Conatzer
Twitter: @Toffeepaul.com
Looks like it’ll be an early night for most Everton fans.
No reason to watch Match-of-the-Day unless you’re something of a masochist. No reason to watch any of the highlights because there really aren’t any for Everton.
What’s that Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lucas Digne both hit the bar? Well, Watford’s Andre Gray didn’t hit the bar or the posts. He put the ball in the back of the net to give Watford a 1-0 home win against Everton and continued to pile the pressure on the shoulders of former Hornets’ boss and current Everton head coach Marco Silva.
That’s three straight losses in the Premier League, including two at Goodison Park. A place that once had a reputation as a fortress.
Everton captain Tom Davies told the BBC – “We dug in again. We’re not happy and have to look back on this match and see what we need to change. We underperformed again today. We had enough chances.”
Davies and the rest of the Toffees will have plenty of time to try and change the growing ineptness that seems to hang over Goodison Park like a heavy fog that prevents people seeing their hands in front of their face.
Due to their lack of FA Cup entanglements, Everton don’t play again until Tuesday, February 26, when they travel to Cardiff. Once again, this seems like a “winnable game” as Cardiff has spent most of the season in or near the relegation zone. However, the Bluebirds grabbed their second away win of the season as Kenneth Zohore scored late in second-half extra-time on an emotional afternoon for Cardiff as they continued to mourn the death of record signing Emiliano Sala.
Cardiff will play Watford on Feb. 22, before hosting Everton.
Each loss increases the clamour for Silva to be fired. Yet if Everton were to get rid of another manager a little more than six months after hiring him, what kind of message would that send to any potential future managers?
Nobody expected Everton to challenge for the top four, but a top six finish did seem feasible. However, since that late loss to Liverpool at Anfield, mid-table mediocrity looks like the best the Blues can hope for.