Everton fans must truly wonder what a season could deliver for them if they could hook it up at the start of the season the way they do towards the end. As far as the race for fourth place goes this season, they’re arguably hitting form at just the right time and, looking at their run-in, aside from coming to Villa Park on April 14th, every other team left to play is below them in the table. I wouldn’t bet against them being right in the mix for 4th as we approach the last couple of games in May.

Between now and April 14th, we have the small matter of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Bolton at the Reebok and then a little game at Wembley, facing Chelsea once more. At the moment, we have a 3 point advantage over Everton with a game in hand. They will play Wolves and West Ham before coming to VP, so we’ll still have a game in hand, but will we still be ahead in points? That game could be the fulcrum of our run-in and Everton have a 10 day rest between hosting West Ham and making the relatively short trip down the M6.

For all the talk about Tottenham leading the hunt for the final Champions League sport, they still have play their FA Cup semi-final before a potentially devastating triple whammy of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd in 10 days. Their penultimate game is a trip to Eastlands against a City side who may well still be in the race themselves.

Speaking of Man City, they don’t exactly have it easy. They still have to host the return leg of the Manchester derby before heading down to the Emirates to play Arsenal. Besides Tottenham, they also still have to play us too.

Liverpool have been practically written off, but aside from Chelsea going to Anfield, all of their games are imminently winnable, even with the issues currently plaguing them. I wouldn’t be willing to underwrite Rafa’s guarantee, but I don’t think they’re entirely out of this either.

As for Aston Villa, well, obviously tomorrow’s visit to Stamford Bridge looks ominous right now, but we still have the 3rd best record against top half teams, so you never know. The games against Everton and Man City are clearly six-pointers and then there’s the home derby which will no doubt be a raucous affair where literally almost anything is possible. The other four games; Bolton, Portsmouth, Hull and Blackburn, have to be viewed as very real opportunities to rack up 12 points. Of course they do, but then I viewed the last four games the same way and we have just 6 points to show for our troubles, so it won’t come easy for sure.

The Run-In For The Pack Chasing Fourth

Yes, I’ve included Birmingham City below. No, I don’t think they’re in the hunt for fourth! However, with games against Liverpool, Man City and ourselves, they have a part to play and, frankly, it just balanced the page better.

I’ve highlighted games against one of the other teams on the page in blue and games against one of the top three in red. Easy to see why I think Everton are in with a great shot, isn’t it?

Obviously we’d have been in a stronger position if we could have turned one or two of the recent draws into wins, but I’m not willing to write us off at this stage any more than MON appears to. There is absolutely everything to play for.

The Fallacy Of The Game In Hand

One quick final point. I frequently see people referring to our next game as our game in hand and when that game is Chelsea, well, it tends to put a more negative spin on things. As you can see above though, we have a game in hand over the three team on the right; Liverpool, Everton and Birmingham, and they’ll actually be playing at more or less the same time for the next four games. What that means is that it won’t be until we’ve played Hull before we all have the same number of matches remaining.