Everton passed a mediocrity milestone on Saturday afternoon by slumping to yet another loss on their travels, this time against Burnley at Turf Moor.
The Clarets went into the match looking for their first win in 12 matches and sure enough, Sam Allardyce’s miserable side were the ones to provide it – their sixth away defeat on the bounce.
The Toffees actually went ahead when January signing Cenk Tosun notched his first goal for the club, the Turkish striker slipping in to head home a Seamus Coleman flick-on at the near post.
That’s how things remained until the 56th minute, when a single long through-ball was enough to split the Everton back four in twain and allow in Ashley Barnes to crack home the equaliser.
Sure enough, Sean Dyche’s mob then powered their way into the lead when Chris Woods took to the sky to head home a corner at the far stick…
A matter of moments after the restart, Everton had their suffering compounded when Ashley Williams was shown a straight red card five minutes before full-time for exacting his revenge on Barnes by swinging an elbow in the Burnley forward’s face – a clumsy, needless, exasperating foul…
Allardyce was quick to admonished Williams as “unprofessional” after the match, shortly after watching his Everton side fall to their 19th defeat of the season so far – the most losses they’ve amassed in a single campaign for 12 years.
19 – Everton have now lost 19 competitive games in 2017-18; their most in a single season since 2005-06 (21). Struggle. #EVEBUR pic.twitter.com/gI1oBYZEL0
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 3, 2018
Dreadful, and we’re only just into March.
As bad as they are, The Toffees are unlikely to go down which technically means that Allardyce is succeeding in carrying out the precise job he was appointed to carry out.
Still, that’s unlikely to come as much comfort for the fans who are being forced to sit through numbing exhibitions of Big Sam’s particular brand of unambitious drivel week in, week out.