Everton finally got their man in Marco Silva this summer after flirting with the former Watford boss for much of last season.
They ended up with Sam Allardyce at the helm after Ronald Koeman’s departure but while the former England manager led the Toffees to 8th in the Premier League, the Goodison Park faithful and the decision makers at the club were far from impressed with the style of football Allardyce had to offer.
Silva’s arrival, though, will inject a new sense of optimism at Everton and the pressure will be on the Portuguese to reintroduce the exciting, attacking football the fans want to see, as well as getting results in the process.
They had ended the 2017/18 season relatively strongly, losing just one of their final six fixtures, but their performance in the 3-1 defeat at West Ham on the final day will not have filled many with confidence going in to the summer before Silva’s appointment.
They need to start strongly here to prevent another topsy-turvy campaign and their opening fixtures of the 2018/19 Premier League season, now officially confirmed, will give Toffees fans an indication of how likely that is…
11th August – Wolves (A)
18th August – Southampton (H)
25th August – Bournemouth (A)
1st September – Huddersfield (H)
15th September – West Ham United (H)
22nd September – Arsenal (A)
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”255857″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch Everton’s opening fixtures for the 201819 Premier League season”]
Verdict
Away to Wolves is certainly not the easiest trip that Everton could have hoped for given the way the Championship winners dealt with last season under Nuno Espirito Santo, but in the greater scheme of things it’s a kind opening day.
That’s as bad as it gets, really, until a trip to North London to face Arsenal in the Toffees’ first test against a top six club under Marco Silva. That represents a chance for the new coach to bed into the season with a kind run of fixtures and really get into a groove.
If that happens, there could be exciting times ahead for the Toffees come October and November when the bigger games start to hit and a few well-placed scalps could propel Silva’s men into contention with the rest of the league’s big boys.
This could be a chance to really make a stamp on the league and challenge the established big six for a European spot.
