The Official Everton FC thread

If any team deserves it, Everton does. They've been great. The Everton / Arsenal game is going to be huge, MASSIVE, considering they have a wee game in between.

Against City.

Three scrappy points but still 3 points. Of us, Arsenal and Spurs we have the tougher run in but have a game in hand at home against Crystal Palace and play Arsenal at home this weekend.

We have: Arsenal (h), Sunderland (a), Crystal Palace (h, midweek), Man U (h), Southampton (a), Man City (h) and Hull (a).

Spurs have: Sunderland (a), West VBrom (a), Fulham (h), Stoke (a), West ham (a), Villa (h).

Aresnal have: Everton (a), West Ham (h), Hull CIty (a), Newcastle (h), WestBrom (h), Norwich (a)

Tighter than a ducks backside for the fourth Champins League spot and the Euro League spot.

Wow! 3 points closer to Champions League after dispatching Aresnal with relative ease. Sunderland next weekend then Crystal Palace mid-week. 6 points there and the home games v Man U and Man C will define our season. Europe looks almost assured but we deseve CL football next season.

COYB

Hehe

Watched the game last night thanks to Arsenal TV. Genuinly decent commentators and no where near as one eyed as the Man U TV team. We pretty much bossed the entire game. Barclay was very impressive and with a bit more experience will be a real star. Stones is in a similar mold. And they're both English! I think next season will see Stones amnd Jags starting with Distin as cover. Baines captained very well when Ossy went off. Love his genuine passion for the team. Fingers crosed we can keep Lukakau as well. I think he wants to stay.

Tough finish but we're good enough to beat anyone in the Premier League at the moment. Fingers crossed for Champions League next season. Europa looks assured already.

COYB

Tough to admit as a Liverpool fan but you guys have done very well this season. Could be heading back to the good old days of top of the table Merseyside derbies!

Everton. From his football shirt can be seen, he is a sixty million dollar man. His performance this year is also very eye-catching. He is now ranked fifth. From fourth Arsenal have only one point.

Best post I have seen on here for a long time.

Do you know what would go well with the firth ranked man in his Everton shirt?

A KyungBlyler hair extension

are loans fair- yes/no?

yes, as the rules are the same for all.  Every team can get them, and they are good for the player. What is better for Lukaku or Barry - being a squad player at a club like Chelsea or Man City, or playing week in, week out at Everton? Even if there was no loan system, rich clubs would still stockpile players.

No one complained when Tevez was a key part of the title winning Manchester United team while on a 2 year loan from West Ham.

no, but they also very rarely sell players to those clubs though either.

what about it?

Well is it flouting the law if a club is only paying a fraction of one of their players salary?

The loan system as it stands is clearly rubbish, can't believe people are backing it.

How can it be fair for a player to be allowed to play against some teams in a league and not others? There should be a ban against loaning players within a league at the very least (cups I'm not so sure).

Ridiculous situation where Lukaku couldn't play against Chelsea but Courtois can. 

I've got no issues with the current loan system.  It's a necessary part of the game unless other measures are taken - squad limits for example. 

We played against Borini this morning, if he scored a couple of goals and won the game for Sunderland then so be it.  In fact if he had I'm sure it would have shut Wenger up - this issue only seems to get raised around the time Everton play Arsenal.  Didn't hear him moaning when Arsenal were against Crystal Palace, Stoke, Aston Villa, Cardiff, Fulham, Hull, Sunderland, Norwich, Liverpool or West Brom - all teams that at one point during the current season have or had a player on loan from another PL club.

Three more points. Outright 4th and equal on games. Only got Man U this weekend too.

FECK!

Yep - both terrible results this morning.  Think it is too far to ask that Arsenal slip up again - we just have to hang onto 5th now.

No point in us 'slipping up' against City now.  Just have to hope Chelsea can get on top of the red shite.

So in our last four games we have convincingly beaten Aresnal and Man United but managed to lose to Crystal Palace and Southampton. WTF! We need three points from Man City (who are still well in the hunt for the title) and Hull to lock in Europe. I really hope Hull (my home town) have secured EPL for next season before the last game. They look 90% safe though.

The league is tigher than a ducks backside all over the place. Title, relegation, European qualification. It's awesome and the reason Iove the EPL. Even if the Red Sh1te win it.

Gareth Barry signs a three year permanent deal.  Well worth it based on performances last year.  Thoughts?

Great "signing" but we need new blood if we're going to improve on last season. I'd by very happy if we get Lukakau and then get a bit more out of him. We started really developing some combinations last season and if we build on those and add a few new faces to really push for first team football then we'll do well.

The England expereince for Barkley and Stones will be great too.

I think between Barry, McCarthy & Gibson (who I'm guessing will finally be fit), we'll have some very solid defensive midfield combinations throughout the season.  Hopefully that will allow the likes of Pienaar, Osman, Barkley, Mirallas, McGeady etc to cause problems for opposition defenses.  We are very light up top though.  Hoping we can either get Lukaku on a permanent or a few loan signing (looks like Traore).

Great to see that Oviedo will be back in September.

Add Muhamed Besic to that defensive midfield mix.

I'm glad that you guys got Romelu Lukaku.

Woop, woop, woop, woop - welcome back Rom!!!

Congrats on the signing... im so pissed that we sold him.... hope he rips up the league this year

I'm not really sure why Martinez insists on playing Lukaku on the wing. 2 points dropped by Toffees today.

Does he play him there in other games too? I know that last season he was deployed there to destroy Monreal, and did a bloody good job of it. 

That looked the general idea but Pienaar got injured early. It was a good opportunity to bring on McGeady and drop Naismith back to the AMC position. Lukaku did run over Monreal a few times but just didn't look all that comfortable out their in general. You might be right and it could just be this fixture. I only saw highlights of the Leicester game.