Everton’s next four games are facing Leicester City twice, with Liverpool and Chelsea squeezed in between, and all three sides are currently in the top half of the table, with the Liverpool second and Chelsea third.
The Toffees’ win against Manchester United saw them steer four points clear of Burnley in 18th place and the Clarets sacked their boss Sean Dyche on Friday.
Gray thinks that Burnley could have only made the decision to sack Dyche if they had someone ready to come in, such as ex-Everton manager Sam Allardyce.
Speaking on beIN SPORTS, Gray said: “Burnley could only have made this decision if they wanted to appoint somebody like Sam Allardyce.
“They’ve surely not made this decision saying ‘ok, we’ll get a guy in, we’ll go down, we’ll bring someone in who’s going to radically change the club right now, he’s going to get us changing the way we play football.’
“They surely have brought Sam Allardyce or somebody like Sam to do one thing, have a rattle at those seven or eight games and see if you can get enough points to frighten Everton.”
Gray believes that Everton’s next four games will be crucial and dubbed the run of fixtures “tough”.
“I think the next four games are huge for Everton’s future”, Gray added.
“It was a great win against United that just gives a bit of breathing space, but two against Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool, that’s tough.”
Frank Lampard’s men currently enjoy a four-point cushion over Burnley in the Premier League standings and Watford, who have played two games more, are six points worse off.
