Updated Everton face a difficult test on Saturday when they take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, with their third game in a row against top Premier League teams.
But Forest represent a different and arguably more difficult challenge than either Liverpool or Arsenal, as they don’t need to dominate possession to secure impressive results under the guidance of Nuno Espirito Santo.
Just a season ago, Forest were down in the Premier League doldrums, but recovered far better than Everton from their egregious and cynical breach of the P&S Rules, making the most of their sporting advantage, for which they were punished less harshly than Everton.
David Moyes finally made some changes against Arsenal, although they were not necessarily what most fans were wanting to see, but the quick penalty following rare subs at half-time gave Everton a point to protect.
However, Forest lost last time out at Aston Villa, bringing to an end their seven-game unbeaten run that had taken up to the heady heights of 3rd in the Premier League. Anthony Elanga was forced off with an issue and centre-forward Taiwo Awoniyi was absent because of a hamstring complaint.
Forest are set to be without Ola Aina with the calf injury that kept him out last weekend, but Alex Moreno will be available again after being ineligible to face his parent club Villa.
So there are problems in attack for the hosts too, with Chris Wood, Taiwo Awoniyi and Anthony Elanga all doubtful, and Nuno was unwilling to give a definitive answer about the status of any of them in his pre-match press conference.
He said via the Nottingham Post: “We are still assessing all of them. They are struggling with problems – some small, some not so small – but we have to assess them. We have one more day and then we will see if they can be available for the game.
“We are hopeful on all of them. It can be all of them or it can be none, we don’t know. It depends on how they recover and how they feel. We miss all the players when they are not available. Chris has been giving us so many things. Unfortunately, the situation with T happened at the same time.
“If that hadn’t happened, I think we would have been more balanced. But now we have the absence of two strikers, it is more difficult to prepare. We are trying to cope. Many of the players are not playing in their usual positions so they are trying to adapt to different situations, but this is what it is about. It happens to other teams and it happens to us now. We have to fix it.”
David Moyes has some competition for places, with Dwight McNeil gaining another week of fitness training after returning late on against Arsenal, but Moyes said in his pre-match press conference that McNeil is not fit enough to start while Iliman Ndiaye, Tim Iroegbunam and Armando Broja are all available to make up his desired attacking combination.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is out on the grass and training well but it’ll probably be another 3 weeks before he can be considered.
And in defence, Vitalii Mykolenko has returned to training and is likely to start after missing out last weekend. Jesper Lindstrom had a hernia operation yesterday to resolve his groin problem and is probably out for the rest of the season.
Kick-off: 3:00 pm Saturday 12 April 2025
Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Tim Wood, Craig Taylor
Fourth official: Anthony Backhouse
Video Assistant Referee: John Brooks
Assistant VAR: Akil Howson