The Toffees welcome fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest to Goodison Park on Sunday (21 April) on the back of a 6-0 thumping against Chelsea.

Sean Dyche’s men have won just one of their past 15 league games, but Ashton expects them to do what is required to stay up once again.

“It was a strange performance against Chelsea from a Sean Dyche side to capitulate the way they did, with very little fight,” Ashton said on the Premier League All Access podcast [19 April, 42m 28s].

“They now have more injuries at the back, so it’s going to be difficult for them. I always say, though, [Dyche] has got two 1-0s in him – it’s a given. The game against Forest is probably one of those 1-0s.

“If they do lose to Forest, they’ve got a real chance of going down – it’s that big a fixture for Everton. It’ll be interesting to see if he can carve out one of these 1-0 sculptures he’s capable of.”

Everton vs Nottingham Forest head-to-head record

The Toffees have lost just one of their past eight encounters with Forest, winning five of those and drawing the other two. After winning the reverse fixture 1-0 at City Ground thanks to a Dwight McNeil goal, Everton could complete a league double for the first time since 1996-97. This game really is massive for both clubs, even if Luton Town did fail to make up any ground on Saturday (20 April).

The Hatters’ heavy loss to Brentford means that they are one point adrift of Forest and two points behind Everton, having played one and two games more respectively.

Two wins for Everton in their remaining six games would almost certainly mean survival is achieved.

Should one of those come against Forest, supporters can finally breathe a sigh of relief. A defeat on home soil, though, and it really will be squeaky bum time.