Everton welcome Newcastle United to Goodison Park as the Magpies look to end their 11 match winless run in all competitions.
Victory would see Everton climb to fifth whereas Newcastle will remain 16th irrespective of their result, unless the Magpies win by four or more goals.
Team News
Fabian Delph could return for Everton after recovering from a hamstring injury.
Abdoulaye Doucoure is also available after serving an one match ban but Allan (thigh), Niels Nkounkou (hamstring) and Jean-Phillipe Gbamin (fitness) remain absent.
Newcastle could welcome Ciaran Clark back from a calf injury if he is deemed fit.
Paul Dummett (thigh), DeAndre Yedlin (personal) and Fabian Schar (fatigue) could also be available if they pass late fitness tests, whereas
Federico Fernandez (hamstring/muscle) remains sidelined.
Stat Attack
- Everton have won just one of last five meetings against Newcastle (W1, D2, L2).
- Newcastle have taken just three points from their last five trips to Goodison Park (D3, L5).
- Toffees’ Dominic Calvert-Lewin has scored five goals in last four appearances against Newcastle.
- Newcastle have produced the joint-lowest number of league goals from outside the box this season, only scoring once from over 25 yards out of goal alongside Sheffield United.
- Four of Calvert-Lewin’s 11 league goals this season has come via headers.
Prediction
Everton delivered a solid job to snatch a point against a difficult Leicester team with a clinical strike from James Rodriguez mixed with strong defending, although Jordan Pickford was flappy in goal in terms of his saves which led to a costly equaliser.
Newcastle meanwhile just look like a team devoid of confidence to push forward and have retorted to default defence mode learned under Rafael Benitez, which now doesn’t seem to help them because they were just awful on and off the ball against Leeds with their only real threat coming from set pieces.
On that note, I feel like this is a case of how many goals will Everton score rather than a case of who will win, although Newcastle’s defensive ability should help them keep it respectable whilst Pickford’s goalkeeping is a potential aspect to expose if and when those opportunities arise.
Prediction: Everton 2-0 Newcastle
Result: Everton 0-2 Newcastle
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