Sam Allardyce

Sam Allardyce 13/8 to lead Everton to a top half finish in the Premier League

Sam Allardyce has agreed a deal to take over at Everton after a long search for Ronald Koeman's successor.

The season began with plenty of optimism for the blue half of Merseyside. Despite the sale of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United, Everton had reinforced their squad with several big names, including the return of Wayne Rooney, and had Europa League football to look forward to.

13 games into the Premier League season though, and the Toffees sit just outside the relegation zone have already crashed out of Europe, whilst Ronald Koeman is long gone and caretaker boss David Unsworth has not fared any better.

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Having previously ruled himself out of the job, Allardyce will be manager at Goodison Park with the club having failed to secure Marco Silva's services despite a very public pursuit of the Watford boss.

Wayne Rooney Everton
 
Allardyce kept Crystal Palace in the division last season before surprisingly walking away from Selhurst Park but it's 6/1 (7.0) with Paddy Power that the 63-year-old is unable to repeat the trick with Everton and they drop into the Championship. They're also 33/1 (34.0) to finish bottom.

Despite a dismal start, the Mersyside club should be able to remain in the division given the quality available in their squad and the 6/1 (7.0) on offer reflects that. While the three promoted clubs are holding their own, the likes of Swansea (1/3) and two of Allardyce's former clubs; Palace (6/5) and West Ham (7/4), are both deemed to be in much more danger by the bookmakers.

While averaging just a goal a game in attack, Everton had conceded 28 times in 13 matches prior to Wednesday's clash with the Hammers, where they'll go up against former boss David Moyes.

That defensive fraility will surely be Allardyce's first priority and the January transfer window will provide the opportunity to bolster an ailing frontline where no one has ever really led the attack with any consistency or notable success.

GFX STATS EVERTON ALLARDYCE

Lukaku was always going to be a tough player to replace, strikers who can score 25 Premier League goals in a season are few and far between but the policy of buying several players who would ideally play in the same position - namely as a number 10 - has certainly contributed to their poor start.

For those who foresee a better second half of the campaign for Everton, Paddy Power offer 13/8 (2.63) that they're able to achieve a top half finish this term. Such is the congested nature of the lower half the league table, the Toffees are only 5 points off 10th spot at the time of writing so such a turnaround is definitely achievable if the new manager can get the best out of a talented squad who have simply been underperforming thus far. A bottom half finish is available at 1/2 (1.50) with the same firm.

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