Resilience

Resilience If there was one word to describe Everton’s season, then “resilience” would fit the bill. Indeed, if there was one word to sum up David Moyes’ Everton sides — plural, that is, given the amount of time his two stints at the club have spanned — then “resilient” would be it. It would be unfair to just paint Moyes’ Everton as only being a backs-to-the-wall, solid team.

As they have proved at times this season, they can definitely play. Dominant displays against Nottingham Forest (home and away), Fulham, Burnley and, most recently, Chelsea, spring to mind immediately. But Everton are never a club that does things the easy way, and resilience is something they have to show — whether they are clinging on for dear life in a relegation battle, or pushing for European football.

Hopefully, one day soon, that same resilience will lead them to a trophy, ending the ludicrous, near 31-year drought. Last Saturday, Everton’s resilience was on show once again in an away game that seemed to have escaped the Toffees. Brentford were by no means a level above Everton at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Sure, they had created some decent chances, but so had Moyes’ men. Yet when Igor Thiago diverted home Michael Kayode’s shot inadvertently, it felt as though Lady Luck had turned her back on the Toffees. Yet at its core, this Everton team is now full of players who do not know when to give up — a character that Moyes has helped instil in them.