It’s far too early for anyone to “go wild in the aisles” but Rafa Benitez, a manager known to gauge fan reaction in supermarkets, can be satisfied with his work in his new job at Everton so far.
While his appointment was arguably the most-controversial in Merseyside football history, on being appointed Blues boss, former Liverpool gaffer Benitez referenced his time at Chelsea where he’d been interim manager despite a hugely-hostile reception from significant sections of the Stamford Bridge fanbase due to his previous employment at Anfield.
As he was unveiled at Finch Farm back in July, the Spaniard declared: “When I was in Chelsea, in Cobham, I was going to the supermarkets and the fans were really good. The majority of the fans every day were fine. Liverpool is my city, now obviously a lot of people on the Blues side will be pleased if I’m successful.”
Just as he has done in his current post, Benitez demonstrated his thick skin in taking on the Chelsea job but the shopping experience in the leafy Surrey village by the club’s training ground might be a somewhat less intense than if he’d been on the King’s Road.
Given the delicate nature of his arrival, the 61-year-old will have been eager to be judged on results rather than part reputation and will therefore be encouraged by how things have generally gone so far.
There have been no expensive purchases to date and while there have been a few items missing off the shopping list (we’ve all found that in recent months) – notably the club’s failure to bring in a new right-back, believed to have been a priority position – Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray, a couple of the bargain buys picked up in Benitez’s basket have been inspired.
The only real nasty shock – other than a nine-minute meltdown at Aston Villa – has been the Carabao Cup exit via penalties at Queens Park Rangers which proved to be something of an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area.’
Or was it?
You see, Benitez’s bright start – as promising as it’s been – is actually eerily similar to several of his Everton predecessors.
On home turf, his hat-trick of Goodison Park victories has been the best start to a Blues season since Colin Harvey’s charges in 1989/90 but the overall picture has followed a close pattern to some more recent incumbents of the position.
Seven games into their Everton reigns, both Carlo Ancelotti, the man Benitez succeeded, and Ronald Koeman also had identical records to him of won four, drawn two and lost one.
Also like Benitez, both men also had a domestic cup exit thrown into the mix.
Both Roberto Martinez and Sam Allardyce lost just one of their opening seven matches, each winning three and drawing three with the Catalan also having a domestic cup exit.
Marco Silva’s record after seven games was won two, drawn three lost two and he’d go on to be knocked out of the League Cup in his very next match.
So while both Benitez and Everton’s long-suffering fans – who have endured six managerial changes in the last five years – will both be rightly pleased with how things have gone so far, with what could have been a potentially toxic situation defused, nothing out of the ordinary has been achieved so far and everyone at the club would do well to follow the manager’s mantra of taking things just one game at a time.
Perhaps Blues should take more heart from the way their side played in their last fixture, a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford, rather than the result itself.
What is going to be strange though is the sight at Goodison Park next time out when Benitez is in the home dugout and Everton’s long-serving former boss David Moyes is in the visitors’ one.
That will feel akin to the realisation that you’re actually pushing somebody else’s trolley!
