Rampaging Everton timing top-four push to perfection

Before Everton did battle with Newcastle in the midweek round of Premier League fixtures, we highlighted a rather impressive stat whereby the Toffees had only lost one match against a team lower them in the league all season.

Sure enough, that trend bore fruit as Roberto Martinez’s side recorded their fourth straight top-flight win, which in turn prompted many to hail them as the box-seat side in the race for the top four.

Ladbrokes rate their chances of returning to the Champions League at 9/2 and there are a number of reasons why that price should be snapped at like the croc that hounds Captain Hook.

The aforementioned bullying of teams worse off than Everton is the first. Eight games remain on Everton’s 2013/14 schedule, and six of them are against sides who sit lower in the league standings.

That’s a possible 18 points that the Merseyside club can pick up before the season is through, but with only two of those matches coming at home – where they have done the majority of their bottom-club bashing – some draws may have to be settled for.

Nonetheless, they are only six points behind current fourth-place incumbents Arsenal with a game in hand.

Given the walking calamity that the Gunners currently are, a continuation of Everton’s bullying should be enough to see the Goodison Park boys overtake Arsene Wenger’s mob.

If that doesn’t work, then there’s a clash with the very men they are in pursuit of to contest. That match is in their own back yard, where Everton have lost just one league game all season and have already toppled stronger outfits like Chelsea.

With Tottenham trailing Martinez’s men by a point having played a game more, it seems that Everton have destiny in their own hands as far of the top four is concerned, and could some cold hard cash in yours if you back them now.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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