Everton face their biggest test of the Premier League season so far as on-fire Manchester City make the visit to Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Toffees have had a mixed start to the season, having trailed twice in a 2-2 home draw with newly promoted Watford, before a great result - and performance to match - winning 3-0 at last season's surprise package Southampton.
Everton will look to take the confidence from that well-earned victory into Sunday’s game, knowing they have a good recent record at home to City. The visitors have won just twice in their last 17 league visits to the blue side of Stanley Park.
City are confident themselves, however, topping the league after two wins, six goals scored and none conceded. A comfortable away victory over West Brom on the opening weekend was just a taster, as they swept away current league champions Chelsea at the new-look Etihad Stadium last weekend.
A victory for the visitors would see them equal a club record of nine consecutive league victories. They won their last six of last season and will fancy their chances of making it three from three, despite their lacklustre record at Goodison Park in recent years.
Team news
Roberto Martinez has confirmed Everton have no fresh injury worries, with Leighton Baines (ankle), Darron Gibson (foot), Tony Hibbert (knee) and Steven Pienaar (hamstring) all missing for the clash.
Martinez welcomes back Kevin Mirallas to full fitness - he was an unused substitute at St. Mary’s last week - and Aiden McGeady has also been declared fully fit, boosting Everton's ranks going forward.
When briefing the press on Friday, he said "we had no knocks or bruises" from the squad that travelled to Southampton for their victory. He also confirmed they had "very positive news on Mirallas", who they had to be "a little bit cautious" with, to avoid the Belgian forward being rushed back into action swiftly and possibly aggravating his injury.
City have been hit with the news that Pablo Zabaleta will face a month on the sidelines with a knee ligament injury. Zabaleta is yet to feature for Manuel Pellegrini's side this season, so in-form Bacary Sagna is in line for a third start of the campaign.
Summer signing Fabian Delph has missed the first two games after sustaining a pre-season hamstring injury, but returned to full training on Wednesday as is in contention for a league debut. The game comes too soon, however, for Nicolás Otamendi, who joined from Valencia this week.
Pellegrini said that with the way the side are playing, it's "impossible" to move Vincent Kompany and Eliaqium Mangala from their favoured positions - as the side's centre-back pairing. On team selection as a whole, the Chilean stated that the club are "in a good moment" considering they are yet to concede a goal in the last two games, so as a result, they'll continue playing in the same way too.
Last season
Last season's Goodison Park fixture ended in 1-1 draw, with Steven Naismith levelling four minutes after Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho opened the scoring for City. With Everton's recent home record against City, they will undoubtedly fancy their chances.
The reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium will be remembered for Sergio Agüero's early injury, which set a drab tone for the match. Only a Yaya Touré penalty separated the sides, and it promises to be a similarly close affair this Sunday.
Everton will host Manchester City at Goodison Park in the afternoon's second of three league fixtures - with kick-off at 4pm UK time. We'll have all the pre-match build-up, live minute-by-minute coverage and post-match analysis here on VAVEL throughout the afternoon as two of the most impressive sides go head-to-head.