Everton

Another torrid season with more managerial change at least had a silver lining to it though, as a final day victory over Bournemouth ensured the Toffees will play in the top division for the 70th-consecutive season next year.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look back at Everton's unlikely escape during the 2022-23 campaign.

SEASON OVERVIEW

Final league position: 17th

EFL Cup: Third Round

FA Cup: Third Round

Top scorer: Dwight McNeil (7)

Most assists: Alex Iwobi (8)

Following a season of turmoil which saw Everton embroiled in a relegation battle for the time in a generation, spirits were higher pre-season given that the likeable Frank Lampard was in charge instead of the castigated Rafael Benitez.

Lampard brought a feelgood factor with him when appointed as manager early in 2022 and led Everton to survival, with the hope being that with more activity in the transfer market and a full pre-season, things would soon get better.

Some money was spent as Amadou Onana was the notable purchase in a transfer window which saw Everton needing to be shrewd once more, picking up James Tarkowski on a free and Conor Coady on loan.

There were still glaring issues in attack though, after Richarlison's exit to Tottenham Hotspur and the persistent injury problems that continue to plague Dominic Calvert-Lewin's career.

After Calvert-Lewin's injury on the eve of the new season, Everton, seemingly with no plan in place initially to plug the gap behind their first-choice attacker, bought Neal Maupay for £15m, but despite a goal in September to beat West Ham United, the Frenchman would not score again for the rest of the season.

With practically no outlet up front, Lampard's men slumped to two defeats to begin the season, before needing a late equaliser to salvage a point at home to Nottingham Forest.

Everton failed to win any of their first six games of the campaign, but spirits were lifted by a promising performance in the Merseyside derby, when Coady was denied a winning goal by a very narrow VAR call.

That evidently lit a spark as the Toffees then went on to win back-to-back games against West Ham and Southampton, but those results merely papered over some very clear cracks that eventually bore their heads.

Everton's season quickly unravelled, and Lampard soon found himself under pressure as Everton just kept on losing, and a dismal tally of five points from 12 games either side of the World Cup break saw him sacked.

The break came at an awkward time for Everton, because in the final week before club football paused, they were beaten comfortably at home by Leicester City, before Bournemouth thrashed them twice in the space of a week by an aggregate score of 7-1, knocking them out of the EFL Cup along the way.

A 3-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium meant Lampard was on thin ice, but just not yet enough, in the opinion of the board, to sack him.

Other clubs in a similar position to Everton such as Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers changed managers around the same, but the decision to stick with Lampard backfired tremedously.

Ironically, it was Wolves who faced Everton in the first game after the World Cup, and in Julen Lopetegui's first game in charge, the bottom-placed side went to Goodison Park and took all three points thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Southampton and West Ham also came up soon after in some early relegation six-pointers, and both beat Everton, after a damaging 4-1 win for Brighton & Hove Albion at Goodison.

There was no bad blood shown towards Lampard from the Everton faithful, but there was an acceptance that he had to go, while the supporters aimed all their frustration at the board, with weekly protests becoming the main talking point around the club.

After unsubstantiated claims of death threats and physical assault being used against the board members, Bill Kenwright, Farhad Moshiri, Denise Barrett-Baxendale and Graham Sharp all decided to stay away from Goodison for the remaining 10 home matches of the season.

Sean Dyche was named as Lampard's successor, and despite having the daunting prospect of facing table-toppers Arsenal in his first game in charge with all the noise going on off the pitch, Everton ground out a magnificent, and deserved, 1-0 win.

The change in management gave the players a new lease of life, and gave the fans some hope again, after the side had looked dead and buried, sleepwalking into relegation after losing to most of their rivals near the bottom.

Dyche masterminded three wins in his first four home games in charge, and made them tough to beat on the road, as despite having one of the worst away records in English football, only Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United won a home game over Everton after the ex-Burnley manager's arrival.

However, injuries, suspensions and the general lack of standout quality in the squad was still evident, as going into the final day of the season, Everton won just two in 14.

Things quickly turned sour at Goodison with some woeful defeats at home, including a 3-1 versus Fulham and a 4-1 against Newcastle United.

With the signs looking ominous, Everton entered the final four games of the season knowing they still had to face an excellent Brighton side away, as well as Manchester City.

Nobody gave Everton much hope of even getting a point at the Amex, but astonishingly, they found themselves 3-0 up shortly after the half-hour mark, and went on to win 5-1 - their biggest league win in almost five years.

A never-say-die attitude that Dyche seemingly instilled turned out to be pivotal, because for a side which so often crumbled after going a goal down, Everton picked up numerous draws thanks to late heroics.

A wonderful Ellis Simms strike saw the Toffees take a point from Stamford Bridge, Michael Keane's thunderbolt helped them to a 1-1 draw with Spurs, before the most important of all, Yerry Mina's 99th-minute strike at Molineux on the penultimate weekend of the season which ultimately kept their destiny in their own hands going into the final day.

Bournemouth were their opponents and all Everton needed was to win, but with news filtering through that Leicester were leading, the pressure was cranked up.

Just like last season though, Everton got the job done, with Abdoulaye Doucoure, a player not given a chance under Lampard, coming up with the crucial, season-saving goal to keep Everton in the Premier League.

PREMIER LEAGUE STATS

Wins: 8 (18th)

Draws: 12 (=3rd)

Losses: 18 (=7th)

Goals scored: 35 (19th)

Goals conceded: 57 (8th)

Yellow cards: 79 (7th)

Red cards: 2 (=6th)

Passes: 14,152 (17th)

Shots: 429 (=12th)

Big chances missed: 47 (10th)

Saves: 128 (4th)

Tackles: 708 (4th)

Own goals: (=19th)

Hit woodwork: 6 (=17th)

Clearances: 829 (3rd)

HOW DID IT COMPARE TO LAST SEASON?

All in all, it was a near identical season to the last for Everton, except this one came with an even more nerve-wracking finale.

While survival was assured with one game to go last season, heading into the final day with their top-flight future still in the air for the first since 1998 will have been a particularly stressful situation for the supporters.

One constant though, was their supporters, as the Everton faithful continued to sell-out every away allocation and created a rapturous atmosphere in their home wins over Arsenal and Bournemouth, as well a late-season clash with Manchester City, who in the end were just simply too good for the Toffees.

Their win over Crystal Palace in the penultimate game last season confirmed a 16th-placed finish for Everton with 39 points, and despite picking up three points fewer this season, they still survived again, only narrowly in 17th.

Their attacking woes were magnified this season after Richarlison moved on, netting nine goals less than last season, with their striking trio of Calvert-Lewin, Maupay and Simms netting just four goals between them all season.

While Everton had Richarlison in double figures for league goals last season, McNeil was their top scorer this season with just seven, the lowest tally for the club's top marksman for 21 years.

They were on the end of some hefty scorelines again this season, but overall conceded fewer goals, with their defence being critical in claiming the five wins under Dyche, with four 1-0 wins at home.

Once again, Everton's cup exploits were extremely underwhelming, but early exits away to Premier League opposition, notably Man United in the FA Cup, were quickly forgotten about due to their perilous position in the league.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON: DWIGHT MCNEIL

In a team devoid of any players who really deserve such an accolade, McNeil's performances since Dyche arrived must be credited.

Some players really stepped up in the big moments towards the end of the season, such as Doucoure, Tarkowski and Mina, while Jordan Pickford showed why he is still England's number one with his performances against Brighton and Leicester, but McNeil just edges it.

McNeil struggled to make much of an impact under Lampard in the first half of the season and was initially derided as yet another awful purchase from the Everton board, but the former Burnley man was ever-present after Dyche was appointed, and played a central role in most of Everton's positive results during the campaign.

The wide man's talismanic performance in the 5-1 win at Brighton essentially kept Everton's fate in their own hands going into the final day of the season, with two stunning second-half goals to add to his two earlier assists, culminating in one of the best individual displays seen by any player in the Premier League this season.

McNeil also came good in wins over Brentford and Arsenal, sinking the Bees with another long-range strike inside the opening minute a few weeks after delivering the corner that saw James Tarkowski bag the winner against the Gunners.

The versatility of the 23-year-old was also a big bonus, as McNeil filled in as a left-back for their late-season 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers, after injuries had decimated the Toffees defence for the final few weeks of the campaign.