Barclays Premier League Club Profile: Everton F.C.
Everton are a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club currently plays in the top flight of English football, known as the Barclays Premier League, and has played more top flight games than any other English club. The Club was formed in 1878 and was one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888. Their first ever championship arrived two years later when they lifted the football league title in 1890.
Everton play their home games at Goodison Park. The stadium has been home to Everton since 1892, making it one of the oldest stadiums in the country. The stadium seats just over thirty six thousand spectators and is known for its amazing atmosphere during match-days. The club has announced plans to move to a new fifty thousand seater stadium but the plans were subsequently blocked by the local city council, the club's officials have been trying since then to come up with new proposals so that they can keep up financially with bigger clubs in the country.
Everton's biggest local rivals are Liverpool. Both clubs play in the Premier League and have heated contests each year, something their fans wait for more than anything else in the footballing calendar. The match between the two sides is known as the Merseyside Derby. The rivalry stems from the fact that Liverpool was formed by a break-away group of Everton players. Ever since then the two clubs have been trying to out-do each other. Liverpool have been, by far, more successful of the two clubs with Everton struggling to catch up to them.
The last major trophy Everton won was in 1995, when they lifted the FA Cup by beating Manchester United after a headed goal from Paul Rideout. The game is remembered for the heroics of the Everton Goalkeeper, Neville Southall, who made a series of outstanding saves after Everton had gone ahead and made sure they did not concede to the former English Champions. The game ended 1-0, to the delight of the Everton supporters who had been coming off the back of a very difficult season, avoiding relegation on the last day and this was the icing on the cake for them.
In the last decade, Everton have been very inconsistent with their form. Finishing as high as fourth and as low as seventeenth. Last season was one of their better performances, as under the guidance of their Coach David Moyes, Everton finished eighth. The season had started off very slowly for the Liverpool Club, due to injuries to influential players such as Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta to name a few. However, striker Louis Saha's impressive goal scoring form helped the club lift themselves up from the relegation zone to a very respectably top half finish by the end of the season.
The club’s supporters were still disappointed though, as they finished just below a very under-performing Liverpool side. Next season the club will be hoping new stars like Jack Rodwell and Jermaine Beckford can help the club improve into one of the European slots. With the likes of Arteta and Cahill set to feature from the start of the tournament, the chances of Everton improving are very high and if a couple of more players are added to give more depth to the squad, Liverpool will have to watch their back as Everton will be looking to over-take them.
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