In the end, Everton suffered a third dose of ‘capital punishment’ in less than a month with a 2-1 defeat to West Ham United but when seeking crumbs of comfort in what remains a crucial week for the club, they at least went down fighting on this occasion. The trick now is to ensure they don’t go down full stop next month and after scant reward in the bright lights of London, there’s a huge fixture among the hills and mills of Burnley that could define their destiny.
With the aforementioned Clarets and Watford both losing on Saturday, the Blues at least knew neither of their closest relegation rivals had closed any ground on them going into this fixture.
But those games in hand we keep hearing about are no good unless Frank Lampard’s side actually do something to save themselves and once again they were unable to stop the rot away from Goodison Park.
