Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin has insisted that Premier League survival is “absolutely still in our hands” ahead of their final two matches of the season.
Calvert-Lewin gave Everton an early lead in their eventual 3-2 home defeat to Brentford yesterday (15 May), which left the Toffees still two points above the relegation zone after Burnley lost at Tottenham which saw them fall into the bottom three after Leeds drew 1-1 at home to Brighton.
Everton though have a game in hand at home to Crystal Palace on Thursday where victory would see them secure survival, irrespective of what Burnley achieve at Aston Villa as the Clarets face a definite final-day relegation decider.
Defeat for Frank Lampard’s Toffees coupled with a win for Burnley would see the Merseyside club slip to 17th and one point above the drop, ahead of their daunting final-day trip to Arsenal which would become must-win otherwise they would need Leeds to lose at Brentford to secure survival.
Speaking post-match to evertonfc.com, Calvert-Lewin refused to admit that relegation is a serious possibility as he admitted that survival “is absolutely still in our hands,” providing that they claim at least one win from their last two matches or results elsewhere go in their favour.
Red cards for Jarrad Branthwaite and Salomon Rondon in both halves however capped a disastrous defensive second-half collapse for Everton, although Calvert-Lewin felt that there is still team spirit in their performance as he added: “We stuck together and we worked and we grafted.”
The England international however did praise Brentford for their quality as he quipped: “Brentford have good quality players and they put balls in the box, so it’s difficult at times.”
On what he and his teammates need to do heading into the Palace match, Calvert-Lewin commented: “We just have to pick ourselves up – we’re disappointed, but we know that we have another opportunity on Thursday to go again.
“The chat after the game there is positive despite the result because we have an opportunity in our hands to go out and get three points and keep ourselves in the league.
“That’s what we are focusing on now.
“We just have to rest and recover and work as hard as we possibly can on Thursday to get the result.”
His opening goal marked the first time that Calvert-Lewin had scored since August but he iterated that his focus is solely on securing the club’s Premier League status, as he stated that the team “want to do it for ourselves, the manager and the fans.”
Calvert-Lewin though feels that the fans will be important after club supporters created pre-match electric crowd atmosphere in recent home matches, as well as for first-team departures for away matches which the striker feels is “special” and driven the team forward to chase wins in recent weeks.
He however has urged fans to provide one final push against Palace in which he iterated: “It will be no different on Thursday. We need their support, we need everyone in the stadium to get behind us and go and win the game.”
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