Match Preview
After their warm-weather break in the UAE, Everton return to Premier League action in a televised Saturday night encounter at the Molineux stadium.
The unusual kick-off time of 8 pm on a Saturday night has been attributed to TNT Sports, who have the rights to broadcast 52 Premier League games live this season — including this one.
However, during a few previous matchweeks, they decided not to choose a game for their established 12:30 pm Saturday lunchtime slot, meaning they have some extra games to fit in for the remainder of the campaign.
They likely picked this match as a potential relegation 6-pointer, causing the shift from its original 3 pm kick-off time, but things have moved on since then for both sides, although it still holds the promise of being an entertaining encounter, even for the neutrals.
Everton have already scored an impressive 4-0 win over Wolves this season at home back in December — a very rare emphatic win under Sean Dyche — and will be looking to mobilize their improving Premier League record to secure a second win and complete only this season’s second double after Everton’s last and very impressive win at Crystal Palace last month.
The return of Nathan Patterson and Youssef Chermiti to the first-team squad after recovering from their injuries has boosted the line-up options for David Moyes going into this game, and his pre-match press conference confirmed that Iliman Ndiaye, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dwight McNeil are still not close to making a comeback:
“The likes of Dwight, Iliman, Dom, are forward players and creative players who we’re needing back. I don’t think any of those three at the moment are really close. Ili is doing much better. He’s not running yet or anything but he’s certainly improving from his injury.
“I don’t see them quite on the horizon yet. The likes of Seamus (Coleman), those boys are back and in and around it, without being match fit or having any minutes under their belt. They’re getting back into training but those other three are still a wee bit away yet.”
Of Armando Broja, Moyes said: “He’s training, he’s joined in a little bit. He’s not fully right yet. I would say after the international break would probably be the right time. There’s an outside chance that maybe he could be fit for next week. At the moment, I can only follow the medical team. If I was guessing, I would probably say it looks more like after the international break.”
Currently, Mangala, Calvert-Lewin, Broja, Ndiaye and McNeil are all unavailable despite progress on some of the injuries involved suggesting they may not be as serious as first thought. But Moyes still has to try to extend The Blues’s remarkable unbeaten run in the Premier League without this cadre of attacking players.
That unbeaten run could extend to 8 games when they take on a Wolves side that pulled off a surprise win at Bournemouth to help them escape the clutches of the relegation zone, establishing a 5-point cushion over Leicester City and Ipswich Town. But Wolves have only won once at home this year, beating Aston Villa, but losing to Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Fulham.
Wolves go into this game just below Everton in the Premier League table but there is a 10-point differential between the teams that Moyes will be keen to at least sustain — if not extend — the remarkable run since the initial defeat to Aston Villa in his first game after returning to Goodison Park.
Meanwhile, for the home side, the most significant loss is that of talisman Matheus Cunha who is suspended after being sent-off for headbutting Milos Kerkez in the FA Cup 5th Round loss to Bournemouth. Mosquera, Kalajdzic, Gonzalez and Chiwone are all out injured, while Gomes, Agbadou and Guedes are rated as doubtful.
Kick-off: 8 pm GMT, Saturday 8 March 2025
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Natalie Aspinall.
Fourth Official: Tom Bramall.
Video Assistant Referee: Graham Scott.
Assistant VAR: Dan Cook.