Sean Dyche and Carlo Ancelotti have suffered the same Everton problem - now the stakes are higher

Easter Sunday arrived with Everton still searching for a first Premier League win since before Christmas and as Sean Dyche’s side’s wait for a resurrection continues, beleaguered Blues are left fretting whether there will ultimately be a happy ending to a season of unprecedented strife.

An on-the-pitch revival compared to the previous two campaigns – which let’s not forget were the two worst in the club’s entire history in terms of relative points gained – has been hampered by what was initially the most severe sporting sanction ever dished out in English top flight football. But while the emotional rollercoaster has seen 10 points reduced to six on appeal, Nottingham Forest being given a smaller punishment despite a larger breach (only to appeal themselves) and Everton now braced for the verdict on their second PSR charge this term and the implications that could bring, the upsurge that followed the sting of the original deduction has now long since evaporated.

Dyche refers to these numerous off-the-field distractions – including the additional factor of the protracted prospective takeover of the club – as the “noise” and as manager insists his focus remains on “controlling the controllables". However, like all those in his profession, he is judged on his ability to produce a winning team.

By his own admission when first taking the job, the 52-year-old is a “Marmite” manager in the sense that his abrupt manner often strongly divides opinion but like the arbitrary handling of Everton’s cases though, such extremes have now manifested themselves in the team’s results. There’s no getting around the reality that 12 Premier League games without a win equals the club’s record from October 1994.

'A troubling reality was