The weekends opening fixture will see Europa League hopefuls Everton look to continue their bright start to the season when they face West Bromwich Albion.
The Toffees’ have started the season strongly, opening the season with a 1-0 away victory against fellow European chasers Tottenham Hotspur, before a convincing 3-0 win against Salford City in the Carabao Cup.
Visitors West Brom started the season in disappointing fashion, slumping to 3-0 loss at home to Leicester City, despite looking like worthy competitors in the match at half-time, when the score was still level. The slow start did not seem to the league campaign did not seem to affect them in the cup, with a rotated side easing past Harrogate Town on Wednesday night.
Team News
Both sides have no new injury concerns coming into the game, with rotation in the Carabao Cup not only meaning that any possible injury to a key player was avoided, but also that they will be fully fit for the upcoming game.
For Everton, Michael Keane was the only player start against both Spurs and Salford, with Carlo Ancelotti making ten changes for the midweek game.
With that considered, Jarrad Branthwaite was forced off after 24 minutes against Salford after suffering a twisted ankle but was unlikely to feature against West Brom even with full-fitness.
Mason Holgate, Cenk Tosun, and Jean-Philipe Gbamin remain side-lined, with Fabian Delph a doubt for the upcoming match.
The Baggies’ also made ten changes to the side that lost 3-0 to Leicester, with Dara O’Shea the only man to keep his place for the match against Harrogate.
As said previously, there are no new absentees, with outgoing Kenneth Zohore the only man guaranteed to miss out, but there could be a debut for Connor Gallagher, with the midfielder signing on-loan from Chelsea on Thursday.
Predicted line-ups
Everton: Pickford, Digne, Keane, Mina, Coleman, Allan, Doucoure, Gomes, Rodriguez, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison
West Brom: Johnstone, Townsend, Ajayi, Bartley, O’Shea, Sawyers, Livermore, Pereira, Diangana, Robinson
Ones to watch
Everton – Lucas Digne
Frenchman Lucas Dinge has been an ever-present figure in the Everton side since his switch from Barcelona in 2018, racking up 71 appearances, and contributing towards 16 goals.
The 27-year-old started the season strongly, whipping in a pin-point free-kick to the head of Dominic Calvert-Lewin ten minutes after half-time against Spurs to separate the sides at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Playing on the left-hand side, he will certainly be a danger to the Baggies defence. Against Leicester, all three goals that the Albion conceded came from attacks down the left-wing, with the match against Everton set to be no different.
Digne and Richarlison are likely to cause a similar threat to that of the Foxes' James Justin and Dennis Praet, with the inexperienced O’Shea, set to suffer.
The crossing accuracy of Digne is also set to be a problem, with West Brom struggling to deal with crosses in the box against Leicester last weekend. As a result, with the areal ability of Calvert-Lewin from open play, and that of Yerry Mina and Michael Keane from set-pieces, it’s highly likely that Everton will utilise their powers in the air.
West Brom – Grady Diangana
Similar to Everton, West Brom will focus their attacks on the left-hand side of the pitch, with Diangana the man to be given the responsibility of the wing.
Despite neither a goal nor assist to count for his efforts, his runs in-between the lines caused Leicester a lot of problems in the opening 30 minutes when the Albion was on top.
Against Everton, the 22-year-old will be put up against Seamus Coleman, who was able to keep Son Heung-Min quiet last time out. Despite this, the pace and power of Diangana on the ball will cause the Irishman problems, with the 31-year-old having to repeat his stellar performance from last week to keep the former West Ham winger quiet.
Last time out
With the Albion spending the previous two seasons in the Championship, the last time these two met was back in 2018, where the sides shared the points in a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
Jay Rodriguez opened the scoring after seven minutes for the visitors, before Omar Niasse equalled the score 20 minutes before the full-time whistle, making the impact just 56 seconds after being introduced to the game.
The draw with the Baggies’ added to an impressive record, with Everton losing just one of their last 11 games against the Albion (W5, D5, L1).
The last time West Brom won at Goodison was back in 2016, where a goal from Salomon Rondon was the difference between the two sides.
Key quotes
After an impressive opening day fixture and a host of signings coming through the door, there is now an expectation from many that Everton should kick on this campaign and finish higher than last, where the Toffees’ ended the season in 12th.
Manager Ancelotti insists that he welcomes the expectation now on his side, with the added ‘pressure’ benefiting his side.
“It is always important to have expectation because this puts more pressure on us,” said the Italian.
The former Bayern Munich manager continued: “It is good to have pressure because it can give you motivation in your job.
“The performance last week was really important, it gave us a lot of confidence for tomorrow.”
In the opposition dugout, West Brom manager Slaven Bilic was keen to stress that heads have not dropped after the frustrating opening day result and that his players are in the right frame of mind coming into the match.
“The whole atmosphere at the training ground, it wasn’t down, down, down after Leicester, but it is much better now,” said Bilic.
He added: “We have a big game on Saturday, against a big opponent. Every opponent is big in the Premier League, so we are right, we are good.
“Mentally we are where we want to be.”
How to watch
The game will be shown live on BT Sport, with the match starting at 12:30 BST on Saturday 19 September 2020.