Third round of the FA Cup is this Thursday with Everton taking on Peterborough United at Goodison Park.
The fixture was brought forward 48 hours due to Liverpool also playing at home over the weekend and both sides were in disagreement about the change.
After being beaten 1-0 against Bournemouth over the weekend, expectations have quickly mounted on Everton’s manager Sean Dyche, with reports this week indicating that new owners Friedkin Group now have some anxieties about the team.
Having done a particularly good job in the first 18 months of his leadership the tired between the fans and Dyche is getting worse, the fans are tired of Dyche perceived negative play which is now not even producing wins.
Everton has only won one of their last 11 games, and the scorer of the Everton’s most goals during this period is Wolves defender, Craig Dawson who scored an own goal twice in the game that Everton had a victory.
It is only the second time their forwards have managed to breach the opposition defence through a shot from an open play in the last 10, a toothless attack that was once again put to the sword at the weekend by a resolute Watford side at the Vitality forcing them to scramble above the drop zone by a mere point.
A victory in this FA Cup third round match will not in any way lessen the pressure or Dyche’s position, but a loss will mean that his sack is all but certain especially with Everton once again bereft of ideas in the attacking third.
Each time the FA Cup arrives for Everton in January, the same story is recounted about the team’s lack of success in any other competitions since winning the competition in 1995.
The Toffees have only made two journeys to Wembley since their last final appearance sixteen years ago, both times losing to Manchester United and Liverpool in the semi-finals.
They have only won one of their last five FA Cup games, losing to Crystal Palace in 2022, falling to Man United at this point the following year, and losing to Luton Town at home last season. Their performance in the competition has been abysmal in the last two years.
But, given that they have won 14 of their last 15 games against non-Premier League teams in this competition—the only loss being a 3-2 loss at Millwall in 2019 when the officials failed to spot a clear handball for the late winner—playing lower-league opponents might be advantageous.
The previous time Everton fell to a third-tier FA Cup team came in 2008, and predictably, that match also took place at Goodison, where Oldham Athletic caused a major upset with a 1-0 victory.
Although Peterborough and Everton have faced off in the past, the Toffees prevailed in their lone meeting, prevailing 2-1 in a 2006 League Cup second round match thanks to a late goal by Tim Cahill.
The Posh have only advanced past this level once in the last six seasons and have struggled to pull off upsets in the FA Cup, losing all 14 of their previous third-round matches against top-flight opponents.
