Everton's 13 defeats in 19 home games is their worst run of form in the Premier League, including all four at Goodison Park this term; follow Everton vs Bournemouth on Sky Sports' digital platforms on Saturday; kick-off 3pm; free highlights available from 5.15pm
Saturday 7 October 2023 16:47, UK
Since November 2022, Everton's home form reads like the proverbial sleepy Welsh town: LLLLWWLWDLLLWLLLL.
Last Saturday, newly-promoted Luton provided an unwanted extension to that sequence. It is now 13 defeats in 19 home games - their worst run of form in the Premier League.
Sean Dyche avoided becoming the first manager in top-division history to lose his opening four home games of a season without scoring a goal, but it was hardly a crumb of comfort. He still looked drained, drenched and out of ideas as the seconds ticked away on the touchline.
It is now seven defeats at Goodison from their last eight, 12 from their last 16.
Luton's man of the match Alfie Doughty said: "It's not an easy place to come to but we showed such good character."
Palpably, the first part of this statement is false. Goodison Park has gone soft. The Gwladys Street bearpit has lost its growl. At some point next season, the club plan to move into their new home at Bramley Moore Dock.
For 132 seasons, Goodison has been the bedrock of an impassioned community and home to Everton Football Club. In what could prove its final campaign, fans are yet to hear the sound of victory music or dance to 'It's a Grand Old Team' played over the tannoy at full-time.
It is hard to pinpoint precisely when and how the Old Lady's aura went missing.
Even during Carlo Ancelotti's only full season at the club, when Everton finished three points off a Europa Conference League spot, they were ranked 15th for home league points, losing on nine occasions.
The impact of fans returning following the pandemic was somewhat neutralised by the appointment of Rafael Benitez, and it has only been towards the sharp end of the past two seasons under Frank Lampard and Dyche that Goodison has resembled anything like its former self.
The team have not scored more than once in any of their last 17 league home games (11 goals). They have only scored more than once in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace nearly a year ago.
Dyche was left hugely frustrated by his side's failure to build on momentum generated by successive wins over Brentford in the league and Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup. In front of their expectant supporters, a mental block appears to afflict those in royal blue.
Covering the game for Soccer Special, Sue Smith rightly pointed out: "You could see the nerves after Luton scored. They looked a bit scared. They've been so much better away from home. It has to be better at Goodison and they have to take their opportunities."
Speaking on Friday, Dyche said: "It's a very frustrating one because we played well (against Luton) - frustrating on set-pieces but a very good, strong performance and dominant in so many metrics, but you don't get a win.
"I'm well aware the business is about winning games. We've delivered the performances but we've not won enough games and that has got to change.
"We're trying to change a two-year-old story, and I think the performances have, the outcomes haven't. I never shy away from outcomes, on or off the pitch.
"I think the last thing we have to change - there's other things, but the last big thing - is taking opportunities, and taking control of the games that we're dominating.
"We're so close but so far away to the story changing, the rhetoric and the noise, as I call it.
"The point is you have to make it happen. I was talking to the players just today about that. Stats and facts, and all the rest of it - we have to make it happen."
Everton have had more possession in eight of their 45 Premier League games since the start of last season. They've won just once, losing six and drawing the other.
That win came against West Ham in September last season. Under Dyche, they have only had more possession than their opponents against Sheffield United and Luton this season.
Having the guile to penetrate sides happy to sit off and exploit spaces on the transition is a clear problem, especially on home soil.
Representatives of prospective new owners 777 Partners, watching from the stands last Saturday, would certainly have been left in no doubt about the scale of the challenge in reversing the club's fortunes.
Dyche had a meeting with them a fortnight ago, and he added: "The noise was changing, and the feel changes very quickly. It's a big step forward and (then) a big step back, and we have to change that.
"We had a very good opportunity, and that's no disrespect to Luton - every game in the Premier League is a tough game.
"It's just frustrating that every time we get it going and we're just on the cusp of changing all the noise, we just step back again. We have to change that."
Dyche is only learning what his predecessors have gone through during the Farhad Moshiri era, despite close to £700m being ploughed in during the Iranian businessman's tenure.
The directors' box was full for the first time since January, but the presence of prospective new owners provided no uplift. The latest stretch of home defeats is virtually unprecedented in the club's history.
Everton have lost each of their opening four home games of a league season for only the second time, also doing so in the top tier during the 1958-59 campaign under Ian Buchan. He was sacked a month later.
The mood music appeared to have changed after those away victories in league and cup over Brentford and Villa - both of which demonstrated the squad's capabilities - but there has been an ongoing problem for the current group when faced with replicating such performances in front of their own supporters.
Of real frustration stretching back to Marco Silva's time at the club has been results against newly-promoted sides. One or two defeats can be seen as a blip, but a pattern of defeats has emerged. It is now nine losses in 14 such matches.
Is it a case of complacency or Everton just lacking the ability to penetrate teams happy to concede possession?
Speaking on Monday Night Football, Lampard told Sky Sports: "Goodison Park, it can be an amazing place. I think sometimes some of the bigger hitters in the league come there and we managed to get results there. That's gone on since me, and happened a long time before me.
"But when you're given the onus of a game, and you've got a promoted team it brings up different challenges: Can you control a game? What can you do on the ball? Can you break a team down? And of course when these teams are coming up [from the Championship] now these teams are very organised.
It is nothing to do with the fans. I cannot think of anything better than scoring a goal at home because the fans go mad and that has to be a benefit.
"They are ready to go. They know that if they can stifle you and stop you, these teams will be set up to do that, I'm sure Luton with a back five will make it very difficult, and you get your nose in front with a set piece; it's a consistent theme. It's something that's a frustration because it [Goodison Park] should be a fortress."
Lampard added: "The reality is that where Everton are now, at this current moment - where they were before me, when I was there, and since then, is that these games are huge. Even if you're to make it difficult for an Arsenal or a [Manchester] City when they come to Goodison, you need to pick up points in these [bottom half] games."
Bournemouth are the visitors to Merseyside this weekend. The Cherries are yet to win in the Premier League this season, just as Luton were, but they will view Saturday's encounter as ripe for three points.
Everton have scored just twice in their last six at home, and last season they recorded the most home league defeats (10) and fewest home league goals in the club's history. The 16 scored was the fewest of any side in the division.
Asked by Jamie Carragher if the failed reigns of Ancelotti and Silva proved that Everton are "unmanageable," Lampard replied: "I think it's a challenge.
"I think unmanageable isn't quite the right word. There are certainly a lot of challenges because all of these managers would have had their own ideas and philosophies, and I think Everton is one of the unique clubs in the league. I found so much good about it.
"The fans virtually kept us up when we stayed up - what they were doing was incredible and they drove the lads on. But they also have a real desire for what they want to see. Some of it is great, the basics of football: the passion, the tackles and I was completely with that.
"But, of course, sometimes, as a coach, you want to try and take it forward and play a bit more. And you want to try and have those games where you are expected to have the ball and be able to do good things with it. I think it is a club where you do really have to tap into what the fans want because it can be a powerful force.
"With the managers - you're going through Champions League-winning managers, you're going through managers who have been there like Marco Silva and now he's doing such a great job at Fulham - you do understand that maybe that unique side which can be so good for Everton can be challenging at times, from a coaching point of view."
All six of the club's home wins last season were to nil, five 1-0 successes to go with the 3-0 triumph over Palace. When it comes to scoring the first goal, Evertonians are only too aware of the importance under Dyche, who has retrieved just two points having fallen behind during his reign.
Conversely, Everton have not lost in nine games when scoring first under their current manager, winning six.
One of those victories was against Bournemouth, on the final day of last season, as Everton preserved their top-flight status for a 70th consecutive season.
Lampard echoed Dyche's recent maxim of shrugging off the past and changing the story.
"The amount of Everton fans who work behind the scenes, the kit men, the people there - everybody there is Everton," he continued. "It's almost like there is a good and a bad to that.
"The great thing is that they live it and they love it and they are so desperate for the club because they feel it. But there was also that thing where they were like 'Oh we've been here before, this is going to be a tough season', you know that cynicism sometimes. I do it as a fan.
"I was surprised by the degree of that, I'm not talking about the fans, but I was surprised by the degree of being consigned to relegation.
"It was a desperation almost running throughout the club. That was the thing I felt I had to try and change the most. I had quite a few meetings with players and staff where I said we have got to lose this."
A mindset that breeds negativity has to be wiped, starting this weekend, if Everton are to truly emerge from their current home cycle of torment.
Follow Everton vs Bournemouth on Sky Sports' digital platforms from 1.30pm on Saturday; kick-off 3pm; free highlights available from 5.15pm
