Toffees getting chewed up

Opinion

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This article was published 20/09/2024 (352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We have heard them time and again — clichés about this league only really starting after Labour Day, that one at Christmas, another one in which “it’s still early” until the end of June; the list goes on.

Not quite mindless adages, they tend to point toward something based on past experience, or at least the freed up attention of folks who need to put one thing to the side before becoming heavily invested in the next. (“A cliché is a cliché for a reason”: the ultimate cliché.)

But if we’re playing along with the idea, we might as well half-heartedly assert that the European club football season only really gets going around the fall equinox (Sunday at 7:44 a.m., by the way). By then, the transfer windows have shut and the world’s best players returned from September’s international break.

And no shortage of teams will already be looking for a fresh start, and none more so than Everton and Valencia.

Between the two of them, the Premier League and Liga clubs — not quite “big” clubs but not quite “small” ones, either — have exactly zero wins from a combined nine matches in which they’ve scored seven goals. Neither were expected to be jostling in the top half of the table this term, but they’ve so far not even been competitive.

For Everton, unfortunately, their 0-0-4 record is less of a surprise than Valencia’s 0-1-4. The Toffees are coming off a campaign in which they were deducted eight points for breaching PSR (profitability and sustainability) regulations, and during the summer they lost their best midfielder, Amadou Onana, to Aston Villa.

As it happens, they’re about to embark on what should be their most productive stretch of the schedule, beginning today at winless Leicester City (9 a.m., FuboTV). Similarly winless Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, and Southampton follow during the next month. If Everton can’t win two of those matches, they can expect to be relegated for the first time since 1953.

Valencia’s start to the season has been more sad than abysmal, which is saying something. Owner Peter Lim is no longer investing in his squad, and he also refuses to fund construction of the Nou Mestalla — derelictions that have incited protests in Spain’s third-largest city.

Today’s home match against Champions League side Girona (11:30 a.m., TSN+) is hardly an easy assignment. However, like Everton, they subsequently go on what will likely be a season-defining run, facing fellow Liga weaklings Osasuna, Real Sociedad, Leganes, Las Palmas and Getafe in succession before Real Madrid come to town.

Of those 15 points available, Los Ches will need to take nine or 10 if they’re to avoid a relegation battle in the spring.

In Italy, AS Roma decided no wins out of four was sufficient to replace manager and club legend Daniele De Rossi with ex-Torino Hellas Verona and Genoa boss Ivan Juric, whose only winning season came eight years ago when he guided Crotone out of Serie B.

Now, Roma may have yet to win a match in 2024-25, but they’ve also lost only once. The rest were draws, including a nil-nil away to Juventus earlier this month. They host surprise Serie A leaders Udinese on Sunday (11 a.m., FuboTV), after which they’ll welcome last-place Venezia to the capital before visiting 15th-place Monza.

Similar to those of Valencia, Roma’s problems have less to do with actual football matters than absentee owners and their incompetent administrators. De Rossi, for example, would not have left the Giallorossi had the American Friedkin family not been doing their best to emulate Rebecca Welton in the first season of Ted Lasso.

AC Milan, currently 10th, could also use a Serie A reset, and what better time to get it than on Sunday when they face local rivals Inter in the Derby della Madonnina.

Back in England, Tottenham Hotspur are still reeling from their home defeat to Arsenal in last weekend’s North London Derby, which followed a 2-1 loss at Newcastle, which followed their lone win of the season against Everton. It seems the £100 million spent to acquire Dominic Solanke’s 29 career Premier League goals and 18-year-old defender Archie Gray has not been enough to improve a side coming off a fifth-place finish in the English top flight.

Today’s home match against Brentford should at least provide a realistic opportunity for Spurs to get their 2024-25 campaign up and running, and eight days from now their visit to Old Trafford will see them encounter the permanently-in-need-of-a-turnaround Manchester United.

They say championships aren’t won in a schedule’s first month — though they can be lost in those first few weeks.

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