Everton will not be giving up on the fourth spot despite falling four points behind Arsenal with three matches left in the campaign. This was according to the club’s striker Steven Naismith. Disappointing form from Arsenal over the last few months has seen them drop well below the title aspirations.
The poor form even led them to be in danger of conceding the top four place to Everton. However, the FA Cup semi-final victory over Wigan has proven to be the catalyst for Arsenal reviving their fortunes.
This coupled with Everton’s defeats against Crystal Palace and Sunderland have proved to be costly. The race for the top four could be over this weekend when Everton take on Manchester City at Goodison Park, with City hotly tipped by the guys at belgie zuidkorea odds.
Ahead of the match, Naismith says that the club will not give up on top four ambitions because of the recent poor run of form. He says that anything can happen in the remainder of the season. However, the prospect of it looks extremely difficult considering that Arsenal will be against bottom of the table clubs like Norwich in the remainder of the season.
Their focus on the FA Cup final, though, could result in a few slipups. Naismith wants Everton to win all the three matches to take advantage of it.
“It’s disappointing that [it seems] we have missed out on that [finishing fourth] because, although it’s not mathematically impossible, we slipped up against Crystal Palace and at the weekend [at Southampton]. We will definitely be doing all we can but Arsenal have capitalised. We will fight to the end but the main thing is that we have got to finish fifth. All we are concentrating on is securing European football,” said the striker.
City match will be extremely tough given that the opposition are involved in the title race.