Should Everton fans be worried by their team’s poor start?

Everton boss Roberto Martinez needs to find a way to halt his sides alarming form this season

On Sunday Everton suffered a 2-1 defeat Manchester United, which was their fourth Premier League loss in just seven top-flight games played so far.

The Toffees may claim they were unlucky in defeat to United, because Red Devils keeper David De Gea pulled off some top saves, but in truth the Toffees have made a poor start to a season that promised so much.

Expectations

Everton finished last season in fifth place in the Premier League table and collected a club-record 72 points in the process in Roberto Martinez’s first season at the club.

That relative success last season raised expectations among the fans that this season the team could mount a serious challenge for the Champions League places.

However one Premier League win so far this season sees the Toffees currently sitting in 17^th place in the table heading into the international break.

Difficult

The Toffees were handed a difficult start to the season with games against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in the first seven games. They did also have winnable games against the likes of Crystal Palace and Leicester though.

They drew with newly promoted Leicester and for a second consecutive season suffered an unexpected 3-2 loss at home to Palace. The results just have not been good enough for the men from Merseyside this season so far.

Injuries

Everton have been unlucky with injuries this season, with the likes of Kevin Mirallas, Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy all missing games in recent weeks. Of course they are also missing the presence of promising young England international midfielder Ross Barkley, who is believed to be closed to a return to training.

The potential long-term loss of Mirallas will be a major blow, while Coleman and McCarthy should return to the team after the international break. Young England international John Stones also picked-up an injury in Manchester United defeat, which has led him to pull out of the Three Lions squad for this week’s Euro 2016 qualifiers.

Everton are the sort of team that cannot afford to lose key players, as they have a decent squad, but they maybe do not have enough quality cover in vital areas.

Defence

Even when Everton have been able to field the closest they come to a first choice line-up their defence has been simply shocking. The Toffees have gone from having the third best defence in the top-flight last season to having the leakiest this season and it is basically the same players.

Phil Jagielka this season has been poor and Sylvain Distin has recently lost his place to youngster John Stones at the heart of the Everton backline. There have even been unconfirmed rumours on Merseyside that Distin has not trained with the team for the last two weeks.

Whether that is true or not, the Everton defence have been an absolute shambles and keeper Tim Howard looks like he has started to believe his own World Cup hype, because he has put in some very shaky performances this season.

All the uncertainty in Everton’s backline adds up to an unexpectedly bad start to the season for the Toffees. Everton boss Roberto Martinez has to do something to curb the slump, or Everton’s season will be over before it has even started.

Europa

Arguably Everton’s best performance of the season came in a 4-1 home victory over Bundesliga side Wolfsburg in the Europa League.

In the first half of the game against the Germans the Toffees produced a similar style of football to last season. They had pace, passing and vibrancy, all missing from most of their Premier League games so far.

Martinez’s men followed that win up with a hard earned 1-1 draw in deepest darkest Russia against Krasnodar. Those two results leave Everton in a good position to qualify for the last 16 of the competition.

For Evertonians European football is a nice distraction and they are hopeful of a long run in the Europa League. If performances do not improve then that is unlikely to happen though.

Break

The international break has come at a good time for Everton and boss Roberto Martinez. It gives the Spaniard time to evaluate what has gone wrong this season and work out how to put things right to save the Toffees season. It also gives the injured players time to recover and return to first team training.

There is no doubt in my mind that Everton will start producing better performances this season, but it is just a case of whether they can recover their form in time to make a challenge for the top four. At the moment that looks very doubtful.

Should Everton fans be worried by their team’s poor start?