Goodison Park a good match to start off with
So the fixture list finally came out yesterday. There was another fixture list that came out couple of days before that but it turns out that was not the right one. So, now we know that Everton will be our first opponents.
I used to think that starting the league playing a supposedly easier team was better than playing a bigger team like Everton. With all respect to West Brom and even Fulham, these league games make it look as if points are and should be guaranteed but are anything but. Consider even when Man Utd started a couple of seasons playing promoted sides or the smaller names and eke out unconvincing performances and you’ll understand what I mean.
Playing the Toffees at their ground in August means that we get that tricky away game out of the way. In recent years, we’ve either struggled and even come out losers on a couple of occasions or we’ve thrashed them on their own turf. 4-1 seems a familiar score and it has been achieved twice in the last 5 years, once in 2007-08 and the other time was in 2004-05. The latter was incidentally our first game which took place on 16th August 2004. This game marked the league debut of Fabregas, a lot has happened since as you will agree.
The sun will be shinning at Goodison Park, it always does and our boys (some of them more so than the others) love playing when the sun is out. A tough game will prepare them well for the rigours of the season and Everton will have a point or two to prove given their aims to break into the top4 themselves. All in all, I am happier about starting off at Goodison Park for sure than playing a Burnley or Birmingham who start against Utd.
