Race for fifth is now just agony
WHY don't David Moyes and Martin O'Neill just toss a coin or have an arm wrestle to decide whose club goes straight into the UEFA Cup next season? Anything would be better than the prolonged agony that we are enduring every week as Aston Villa inch ever closer to Everton.
Infuriatingly, Everton had a golden opportunity to more or less put the whole thing to bed last Sunday, when they demonstrated some semblance of a return to form but were undone by lapses of concentration at the back.
Given that few observers would fancy us to get anything but beaten at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, all Evertonians will be Wiganers for the day tomorrow in the hope they can maybe earn another draw at Villa Park, as they did at Stamford Bridge recently. The Latics still need a point to be sure of survival and their final match is against Manchester United, so we can at least be certain that they will go to Birmingham looking to get a good result.
Obviously it would be better if we could sort their own fate out themselves though, and another point like the one they got down at Arsenal last season would be enough to ensure that a final day victory against Newcastle will leave us fifth. However, we had the luxury of Tim Cahill's early goal in that encounter, and that allowed us to sit deep and frustrate the Gunners for more or less the rest of the match - not unlike the way that Manchester United did against the slick passers of Barcelona in midweek.
No doubt David Moyes will send his side out to do something similar on Sunday, and no one will be surprised to see him go back to a five-man midfield in order to try and prevent the likes of Cesc Fabregas getting the sort of space to operate that Derby afforded him on Monday night.
Hopefully Everton won't be too defensive though, as they showed for 45 minutes at Goodison this season that when they are on their game they can give Arsene Wenger's men a run for their money. And if we pose not threat at all going forward then it promises to be a very long afternoon.
Who knows, with a positive approach we might take them unawares and break our long winless streak down there. After all, as Chelsea showed on Wednesday night, bad records and sequences are there to be broken.
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