FA Cup 4th Round Preview
Everton and Luton meet at Goodison Park for the second time this season, with the Toffees seeking to make amends for a dreadful second-half display in their Premier League defeat to the Hatters by progressing to the FA Cup Fifth Round.
Luton’s unexpected victory in L4 at the end of September was their first since returning to the top flight and it was an indication that they were not simply going to go back down to the Championship as favourites for relegation without a fight.
Goals by Tom Lockyer and Carlton Morris stunned the Toffees that day and it sparked a run of eight wins from the next 11 games in all competitions by Sean Dyche’s men in response.
Since the win over Burnley in mid-December, however, Everton have won just once, that in the Third Round replay against Crystal Palace on 17th January and the manager will be hoping another victorious cup tie performance can provide a platform for three League games in quick succession between 30th January and 10th February
He will have to do it with a squad that is less than full strength following the news that André Gomes has sustained another injury and is “very unlikely” to play on Saturday.
The midfielder was the hero of the replay against Palace when he whipped a direct free-kick in off the post to score the only goal of the game and send Everton through but Dyche told the media at his press conference today that Gomes now has an injury, thought to be a recurrence of his troublesome calf issue.
The Portuguese looks set to join Abdoulaye Doucouré and Seamus Coleman on the sidelines while Dele Alli, already a long-term absentee after suffering another set-back in his comeback last month, has undergone surgery on his groin.
It had been thought Doucouré would be back for the replay but he isn’t expected to be fit again until mid-February at the earliest after he injured the hamstring in the other leg from the one that kept him out of action over the Festive Period.
With Idrissa Gueye away at the Africa Cup of Nations where Senegal have progressed to the next phase of the competition and Ashley Young not quite ready to return to first-team action, it leaves Dyche with a threadbare squad ahead of four matches in the space of 15 days.
Nathan Patterson is the obvious candidate to start at right-back while one of Arnaut Danjuma or Lewis Dobbin is likely to take one of the spots out wide with Jack Harrison expected to play off Dominic Calvert-Lewin up top.
Having kept two clean sheets and performed well in both games against Palace, Joao Virginia can be confident of continuing his “cup keeper” role by retaining the goalkeeper’s spot.
The Hatters could feature two former Everton players in their ranks, depending on how seriously manager Rob Edwards wants to take the tie.
Ross Barkley and Andros Townsend have both been important players for Luton in their recent uptick in form that has brought them to within a point of the Blues in the Premier League table (albeit only because of the 10-point deduction that Everton will soon be fighting through an appeal) and both will need to be kept quiet by the home defence.
Otherwise, it will be a case of seeing what Dyche and his players learned from the meeting in the League and how best to defeat a physical side who can deal with the aerial game but aren’t quite as adept at defending attacks on the ground.
Kick-off: 3pm, Saturday 27 January 2024
Last Time: Everton 1 – 0 Luton Town (FA Cup QF replay, March 1986)
Predicted Line-up: Virginia Pickford, Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Onana, Garner, McNeil, Danjuma, Harrison, Calvert-Lewin