On Sunday, Sean Dyche’s Everton men lock horns with Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea side in an important Premier League clash at Goodison Park.
The Toffees cruised past Newcastle United 3-0 on Thursday evening, one day after the Blues lost 2-1 to Manchester United.
Everton is in 17th place in the Premier League standings and has been fairly impressive in recent weeks. The home side stunned Newcastle United with a comprehensive 3-0 victory this week and will be confident ahead of this fixture.
On the other hand, Chelsea are in 10th place in the league table and have been inconsistent this season. The Blues slumped to a damaging 2-1 defeat at the hands of ManUnited in their previous game and will need to bounce back this weekend.
Ahead of the match, Dyche admits time is sometimes as important as money as the cash-strapped club looks to take on the Premier League’s biggest recent spenders, Chelsea.
The Toffees, who have incurred a 10-point penalty for breaching financial regulations, have spent £112 million in the last three transfer windows, while the expenditure of Sunday’s opponents is 10 times that over the same period.
Yet without that deduction, which the club are appealing against, a team which narrowly escaped relegation two seasons running would be above Chelsea in the table.
Pochettino admitted that his side were severely lacking in energy as they returned to losing ways, having restored a small sense of pride by besting Brighton & Hove Albion after being swept aside by Newcastle, and they remain firmly in mid-table obscurity in 10th place.
“It’s a process where sometimes it is difficult to put a date on consistency. It always takes time.
“We know what we want, and you also need some luck to keep the players fit or involved, to increase the competition between them until we find this momentum.
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“We must stay calm and keep pushing because we are so close; we didn’t have the luck we deserve.
“Too many teams were winning games when they didn’t deserve to, but for us, it is to deserve and be better and more clinical.”
“It will be tough, but they were having a good season until that happened (the points deduction).
“I know Sean Dyche well and what he achieved with Burnley. They feel they were treated unfairly, and they feel freedom and nothing to lose. They also have good players, and Sean is doing a great job.
“Massive victory against Newcastle will motivate them to face us.”
With their heads now above the relegation zone, Everton are seeking a third successive Premier League victory.
