The State of Play
Sean Dyche’s Everton come into this weekend’s round of fixtures sitting in the bottom three and the relegation places with a poor recent run of recent form. The Toffees come into this one on the back of a continuation of their poor form as they were defeated by two goals to nil away at Manchester City. That loss means they have managed just one win in their last 11 matches across all competitions.
That one victory came by a goal to nil against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park in an FA Cup third round replay last month. Roy Hodgson was taken ill to hospital on Friday and remains stable amidst rumours he is soon to be replaced by Oliver Glasner in the dugout. Their 3-1 defeat at home to Chelsea on Monday in which they had led have now suffered three defeats in their last four matches.
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Team News
Everton boss Sean Dyche has a limited squad in terms of its flexibility and he is expected to remain without Andre Gomes, Dele Alli and Arnaud Danjuma, whilst Abdoulaye Doucoure and Ben Godfrey are doubtful.
Crystal Palace have some issues this weekend. The risky substitution of bringing Michael Olise on when unfit against Brighton has led to him aggravating his hamstring injury, leaving him and fellow key man Eberechi Eze unavailable due to respective injuries.
Expected Line-ups
Everton: Pickford; Coleman, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Harrison, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin
Crystal Palace: Henderson; Munoz, Andersen, Richards, Mitchell; Wharton; Ayew, Hughes, Lerma, Franca; Mateta
What they Said
Sean Dyche was positive after Everton’s defeat in Manchester last weekend with the former Burnley boss saying his out of form relegation-threatened side showed ‘good signs’ in that loss.
Roy Hodgson did not give his pre-match press conference on Thursday after being taken ill to hospital. He did suggest he remained confident of keeping Palace in the Premier League after their loss to Chelsea last weekend.
When and How to Watch
This match is being played at Goodison Park and kicks off at 20:00 on Saturday February 19th and will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. It can also be streamed live via the Sky Go app.
Prediction
If Nottingham Forest and Luton Town win over the weekend with Forest hosting West Ham and Luton facing Manchester United, the pressure could really be on both Everton and Crystal Palace as they battle against relegation. They are both in terrible form and playing limited styles of football going forward, combining for just 53 goals so far this season, and a low-scoring encounter with fewer than three goals does appear inevitable on Monday evening.
