Relegation battling Everton host top-seven chasing Fulham at Goodison Park in a pivotal Premier League encounter.
Victory would move Everton as high as 15th in the table, whilst Fulham can stay tenth with a win or if Chelsea fail to better their result elsewhere.
Team News
Seamus Coleman is ruled out for Everton after he suffered a minor hamstring injury during their 2-0 loss at Manchester United last weekend.
Ruben Vinagre (Achilles) plus Dominic Calvert-Lewin (hamstring) could return but Abdoulaye Doucoure (suspension) and Andros Townsend (knee) remain absent.
Fulham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their defeat at home to West Ham last weekend.
Neeskens Kebano (Achilles), Layvin Kurzawa (knee) and Aleksandr Mitrovic (suspension) all remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Everton host Fulham in a 3pm BST kick-off at Goodison Park on Saturday 15 April, untelevised in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Everton have won just one of their last four meetings against Fulham (W1, D1, L2).
- Fulham have won just one of their last five visits to Goodison Park (W1, L4).
- Marco Silva’s Cottagers have kept clean sheets in three of their last four meetings against Everton, except for a 3-2 loss at Craven Cottage in November 2020.
- Three of Everton’s four goals at home under Sean Dyche has been scored by a defender, except for Dwight McNeil who struck a first minute winner against Brentford in March 2023.
- No Fulham player this season has made more interceptions than Tim Ream (40).
Prediction
Any chances of victory at Man Utd was always unlikely but I hope that Everton and especially Sean Dyche can take the positives out of their defensive performance, which was one of their better displays this season compared to their attack which was sloppy and lacked end product.
Fulham meanwhile are in a rut with five consecutive defeats which have surely ended their European qualifcation dreams, yet their attacking quality seems to have dropped with a sluggish loss to West Ham amidst excellent saves from Bernd Leno to minimise their losing margin.
Mitrovic’s absence also hasn’t exactly helped Fulham but I hope that they can use this as a learning curve heading into the summer transfer market, yet there is huge improvement needed up front by both teams coming into this game.
In fact, I am not expecting a classic by any stretch but this is the sort of home game that Everton must win because their final seven games do look incredibly difficult, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them scrape a win otherwise they’re in huge trouble.
Prediction: Everton 1-0 Fulham
Result: Everton 1-3 Fulham