Simon Jordan believes Everton will avoid relegation thanks to Sean Dyche, despite recent question marks over his impact at Goodison Park.
The Toffees climbed up to 15th place in the table thanks to a 1-0 win over Brentford at Goodison Park (11 March), his third win in seven games since becoming manager of the club.
And speaking live on talkSPORT on 14 March, Jordan shared his verdict on the current relegation battle and admitted that he feels Dyche has the toolkit to get the team out of trouble despite a lack of goals in the team.
“It feels like the bottom three are beginning to become the bottom three,” he said.
“But there’s such a juxtapose week on week.
“I think Southampton are gone. And it’s looking more like, and I made a case for Leeds United but they’re not recovering.
“I like Javi Gracia, I think he’s a decent manager. I think he can consider himself slightly unlucky at Watford but then there are a list of managers who can consider themselves unlucky at Watford.
“I look at that and I say I don’t think Crystal Palace will get sucked back into it. I think Wolves with Lopetegui, he’s just too good a manager. I think Dyche has always been maintained by most of us that he’ll get Everton out of trouble. Moyes I still maintain has enough about him, although I don’t like David’s constant looking back at what they’ve done previously.
“So then you’re left with Brendan (Rodgers) at Leicester, with the bottom three.
“The challenge is that nobody is adrift. Nobody is out of consideration and what you’ve got is a race to the bottom, literally.”
“You look at Sean Dyche and it was only four or five days ago that people said, ‘hang on, is the Dyche effect wearing off? They can’t score goals’, then they go and beat Brentford – a form side.
“I think with Dyche and Everton, Dyche has just got the toolkit. He knows what he’s doing. He’ll find a way to even get the handbag carrier (Dominic Calvert-Lewin) back on.”
One thing that Everton have got to their advantage that a lot of the other teams down at the bottom don’t have is Premier League experience in their manager’s office.
Dyche kept Burnley up in the Premier League against the odds for years before he was sacked last season with them in a battle, and they eventually went down despite that decision.
But the teams around all have a lot of novice managers in this scenario, with Gary O’Neill and Ruben Selles in their first managerial jobs while Gracia has only been in the Premier League for one season before.
In the playing squad there is plenty of Premier League experience too and some that have experienced relegation before, so they will be keen not to suffer the same fate a second time.
Things are looking up for Everton with the fans behind the team and manager once again and the form looking good, but with a very tough run of games to come things could change quickly.