sport news MARTIN KEOWN: Sticking to a back five can be key to Everton surviving the ...

sport news MARTIN KEOWN: Sticking to a back five can be key to Everton surviving the ...
sport news MARTIN KEOWN: Sticking to a back five can be key to Everton surviving the ...

This relegation race between Everton, Burnley and Leeds is turning into one of the best bottom-of-the-table shootouts we've ever witnessed.

The way these rivals are picking up points, even when their backs are pressed firmly against the wall, is phenomenal.

Just when you least expect them to get a result, that's when they prove the so-called experts wrong!

Relegation-threatned Everton picked up a shocking 1-0 win against Chelsea last weekend

Relegation-threatned Everton picked up a shocking 1-0 win against Chelsea last weekend 

All are engaged in this last stand and it's set up to be a scrap to the bitter end. I was playing for Everton when the Premier League started in 1992.

When you represent that club, you cannot help but be touched by the special passion and atmosphere that runs through the game-day Goodison Park experience. 

I know how much it means to stay in the Premier League. The pain of relegation would be even more difficult to take while the red half of Merseyside are dominating at home and abroad.

When Frank Lampard arrived, Everton were 16th, four points above the drop. In Rafa Benitez's final 13 games, he managed only one win, three draws and nine defeats.

In Lampard's first 13, he's won four, drawn one and lost eight, but they're now 18th.

Frank Lampard said his team has what it takes to battle but they must show it away from home

Frank Lampard said his team has what it takes to battle but they must show it away from home

Watching Newcastle stride past them to safety, and then Burnley go ahead, was a tremendous body blow to Everton. But recent home wins over Manchester United and Chelsea, and a draw with Leicester, have given them hope and belief.

Lampard previously said his players had to show they have the balls for this battle. They've done that at home, and now they've got to do that on the road with two tricky trips to Leicester and Watford in the next five days.

They will need to show the same cocktail of energy, intensity, pace, and technical quality that they showed against Chelsea at Goodison on Sunday.

Everton looked like a pack of hungry hounds chasing down their illustrious opponents. Such is the difficulty that Thomas Tuchel's 3-4-3 system creates, Lampard changed Everton's set-up to a back five to match up to the visitors.

This isn't revolutionary - several sides have done

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