Riding a wave of confidence, Everton welcome Crystal Palace to Goodison Park on Monday night.
After a bittersweet performance against Bournemouth – scoring three goals but coming away with just a point at the death – Everton reached the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup at the Riverside Stadium in midweek, defeating Middlesbrough in a performance inspired by Gerard Deulofeu.
The Spaniard carried his league form into the cup, scoring a brilliant solo goal to open the scoring and teeing up Romelu Lukaku to set up the 2-0 victory. He is just one of a blue attacking quartet that is firing an all cylinders.
Meanwhile, Palace’s form has been somewhat indifferent. A 5-1 thumping of Newcastle United at Selhurst Park was preceded by a shock 1-0 loss at the hands of the Magpies’ local rivals Sunderland.
Nevertheless, the Eagles’ campaign thus far has been impressive overall and has them sitting pretty in seventh place, two positions and one point ahead of their hosts in ninth.
Key Battle – Everton’s sixes vs Palace’s sixes
There will be no shortage of quality in midfield in this clash with Palace boasting the in-form duo of Yohan Cabaye and James McArthur, the latter of which netted twice in his side’s demolition of Newcastle.
On the flip side is Everton’s England stalwart Gareth Barry. The midfield general looks set to partner Tom Cleverley with James McCarthy facing a race against time to be fit for the match.
Both pairs boast an enforcer and a box-to-boxer. Whichever enforcer can wrestle control of the midfield and negate the other’s box-to-box player supplying either side’s dangerous forwards will have a huge say on this fixture and which way the momentum flows.
Team News
The aforementioned McCarthy looks unlikelier than otherwise to win his battle to be ready for this clash, though a Monday night kick-off will allow him plenty of time to prove his fitness. Cleverley started alongside Barry in the Toffees’ cup win over Boro and is likely to fill the void left by the Irishman. Tim Howard and Arouna Kone should return to the starting XI at the expense of Leon Osman and Joel Robles, while fit-again Leighton Baines is a strong chance to feature from the bench.
Palace are relatively injury-free, with the only notable absentees being ex-Wolves man Bakary Sako and Dwight Gayle, who is a chance to feature after missing the Newcastle win. Alan Pardew could well field an unchanged lineup.
Head-to-Head
Everton just shade the overall head-to-head against Palace with 12 wins versus the Eagles’ 10 in 30 encounters. However, Palace have had the better of this fixture since their return to the top flight with two 3-2 victories over the Blues, both at Goodison Park. Everton’s win in those four fixtures came in the latter half of last season at Selhurst Park.
Previous Meeting
The most recent meeting between these teams was that 1-0 win for the Merseysiders. Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring in the second minute and the Everton team that was struggling at the time held on for three points.
Prediction
This fixture has all the makings of a tight contest with plenty at stake. A win for Roberto Martinez’s men would see them leapfrog Palace, but a loss would see the Eagles move four points clear of them. The London club has been tough to figure out in recent times, but, as they have shown in yesteryear (twice), they know what it takes to disrupt Everton’s rhythm and silence the Goodison faithful. Still, the Blues are a well oiled machine with a confident strike force and that will see them over the line.
Everton 2 Crystal Palace 1
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