Champions League... You're Havin' a Laugh!

[Stewart]

Right, I'm an Everton fan and as some of you may know, this season Everton have the chance to finish above Liverpool for the first time since the days of the great Pharaohs. Now, not so long ago we had a nice healthy lead of 7 or so points, but since then, we have lost to Liverpool (spit) at Anfield (spit), and yesterday Liverpool beat Bolton 1-0 to go a single point behind us.

Now, as an Everton fan, and with the combined prizes of finishing above Liverpool and the many millions of pounds you get for getting into the Champions League, as well as the chance to play against the like of Real Madrid and AC Milan, hanging in the balance, I am sweating like Rodney King in Abu Ghraid prison.

Personally, I think our next two games will decide; we play West Brom and Crystal Palace. Hard to know what to expect - on the one hand, they are both in the bottom three and as such weaker teams, but on the other hand, they are the only other teams at this late stage of the season with as much to fight for as us, in their case, Premiership survival.

I reckon 6 points from our next two games, and we are in, but, should Palace or West Brom out scrap us in their bid to stay with the big boys, and we get, say, a point from the two, I can't see us holding off Liverpool.

Having said that, Liverpool's entire team is now injured or suspended (well, anyone who plays up-front is) so they should struggle to score goals and win games convincingly.

Either way, it’s all very tense. Any other Everton or Liverpool (Or Bolton, I suppose) fans feeling the pressure about now? Bragging rights, not to mention 20 million quid is at stake.

Come match days, I'm all every few seconds.

We must hold back the red tide!

[Theo]

Have to say that Everton have had a corker of a season. Mightily impressed with what Moyes has squeezed out so far. G'luck and all.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Theo

Mightily impressed with what Moyes has squeezed out so far.

That's going a tad too far I reckon.

We have pulled up some trees though. Tipped to go down and here we are with a few games to go, flying high in 4th.

The Moyssiah really has worked miracles this season.

[iMc]

Everton deserve it much more than Liverpool.

They have played better and on a more consistant basis.

Part of it is down to Liverpools luck with injuries etc but Everton still deserve their moment in the spotlight, especially after the pre-season Rooney situation.

[iranu]

Everton really do deserve 4th spot imho. They have played for each other with great spirit and organisation, a credit for Moyes. I've got a lot of respect for Moysee.

Losing Gravesson to Real was a bit unfortunate as he really was the player driving the team. Everton did have to reorganise once he had left and have had a bit of a wobble recently. They really need to win today to pick momentum back up (1 win from last 5 games)

Every time I see Everton on the telly or on the viddy printer from now on, I will be thinking of Vaul and wondering how many fingernails he has left .

Good luck. I hope they do it as it's nice to see a team who haven't got the resources of the bigger clubs doing well.

[Tarffie]

Liverpool will win the current Champions League anyway so won't need that 4th place spot in the Premiership.


Hey! Stop laughing, it could happen...

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

As a Liverpool fan I feel I must enter the fray...

There was a rumour floating around that if Liverpool finished in 5th, below Everton but still won the Champions League that the FA might put them forward for the last qualifying spot instead of Everton with Liverpool being the current Champions. Even I'll admit that the possibility of that happening is pretty much nil and Liverpool are most likely going to get mauled by Juve on Tuesday but it was an interesting situation.

As for Everton deserving it more - I'm going to have to fall back onto the injuries situation here. To loose your new £14 million striker for the entire season with the threat of him never returning at one point along with the myriad of other injuries that we've had this season just seems like lady luck has spat all over Anfield. Rafa has had it tough this season in that respect and yet he's still managed to keep the team in Champions League contention and as a nice bonus bring some youngsters up into the senior squad.

Everton - They made the best decision ever selling Rooney for all that cash and it worked out well for both parties involved. I don't think anyone would argue that Man Utd are a bigger outfit than Everton and this gives the boy the best possible chance to move up in the world and make himself known. For Everton they got a massive cash injection which they can use to build their team and ensure long term success.

Deserving the Champions League?

On your bike

[iMc]

Major setback this afternoon. Everton played some decent footy in the 1st period without creating anything great, passed it around well though. West Brom just edged them in the 2nd half and managed to knick a goal through Gera.

The Toffees had a big penalty appeal get waved away by the ref... who had a crap view to be fair.

1-0 to the Baggies in the end.

[Swafe]

The baggies won ? What is this world coming too

[Stewart]

Yeah, so it seems like its all for nowt, as once again, come the business end of the season, Liverpool are being professional, and getting results in tough games (beat us, beat Bolton), whilst we can't even get points at teams in the relegation zone.

Typical.

No point playing good football for 95% of the season, if you can't close it out and actually get something for your efforts. Why can't we grind out results at the end of the season like we did to get to that position in the first place?

We collasped like this 2 seasons back and Blackburn pipped us to a UEFA cup spot, now the same looks likely to happen again with Liverpool this season.

[iMc]

indeed.

They might be the first team in The Premiership to be bottom at Xmas and still survive if they carry on winning.