Match Preview
Everton kick off what might be their last full season at Goodison Park this weekend as the Premier League resumes again and the Blues take on Fulham.
It is Everton’s 70th consecutive season in the top flight thanks to the club’s latest great escape, which they executed on the final day of 2022-23 on the back of some huge results at Leicester, Brighton and Wolves and, of course, Abdoulaye Doucouré’s wonder strike against Bournemouth.
Despite the chorus of “never again” from supporters, the club goes into the new campaign once again short in key areas, not least up front, where Dominic Calvert-Lewin faces a pivotal year in his bid to maintain consistent fitness, and in central defence where Yerry Mina’s departure has not been addressed by a comparable new signing.
The hope and belief among many Blues is that Jarrad Branthwaite will be able to step into the breach created by the Colombian leaving on a free transfer but there is also a feeling that the defence lacks pace and the kind of dominance that Mina offered on the rare occasions he was fit.
Branthwaite is coming off a hugely successful spell on loan at PSV Eindhoven and the fact that he started last weekend’s home friendly with Sporting could be a hint that Sean Dyche will entrust him with partnering James Tarkowski who has shaken off a knock he sustained against the Portuguese.
Nathan Patterson will likely get the nod at right-back while Ashley Young is expected to make his debut at left-back where he will provide enormous experience and initial cover for Vitalii Mykolenko who has not had the benefit of a full pre-season.
With Dwight McNeil out injured, the midfield largely picks itself, with James Garner, Idrissa Gueye, Amadou Onana and Alex Iwobi set to start with Doucouré playing off the striker.
Who that striker will be remains to be seen. Calvert-Lewin has only played two halves of pre-season football and Dyche hinted last week that that would not be enough even if the player himself feels ready.
Youssef Chermiti is expected to be unveiled as Everton’s third signing of the summer and will hopefully have been registered in time to be eligible for this weekend’s fixture but he won’t start having only just arrived.
That will likely mean Neal Maupay leading the line with what will perhaps be one of a few last chances to prove he has something to offer in a Dyche system before the transfer deadline.
Fulham were one of the surprise packages of last season under ex-Everton boss, Marco Silva, even if they went off the boil slightly in the final third of the campaign and finished a laudable 10th.
They had an excellent result at Goodison in April in what looked, at the time, to have been a hammer blow to the Toffees’ hopes of staying up but they come into the new season under something of a cloud with leading scorer and main danger man Aleksandar Mitrovic’s future up in the air.
Silva has been able to add Raul Jiminez from Wolves but he has not been the same player since coming back from a long lay-off following a nasty skull fracture.
Dyche, having enjoyed a decent record in home games since taking over from Frank Lampard in January, will be hoping to get off to a flyer with an opening-day victory that would go a long way to settling the nerves and providing a platform onto which further signings over the rest of the month can be added.
Kick-off: 3 pm, Saturday 12 August 2023
Referee: Stuart Attwell
VAR: Anthony Taylor
Last Time: Everton 1 – 3 Fulham
Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Young, Gueye, Onana, Garner, Iwobi, Doucouré, Maupay