Match Preview
Everton hope to build on the away victory at Brentford in the Premier League and their ousting of Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup in midweek when they take on newly-promoted Luton Town at Goodison Park.
The Blues haven’t won three successive matches in all competitions for over two years but a meeting with the Hatters, who have picked up just one point in six games so far this season, offers them the perfect opportunity to do so again.
Sean Dyche has warned his players against any complacency but the mood in the Everton camp coming into this weekend will be in stark contrast to that which followed their last fixture at Goodison Park, a dismal 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Indeed, while they have started to get their act together on the road where they are now unbeaten in four, Everton have lost all three of their home games so far in 2023-24, a record their manager will be itching to put right as he looks to move higher up the table in the coming weeks.
The last two performances plus the return to fitness of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Dwight McNeil and Jack Harrison all bode well. Calvert-Lewin has bagged goals in each of his last two outings, matching his tally for the entirety of his injury-ravaged 2022-23 campaign, and is looking sharper all the time; McNeil played an integral part in last Saturday’s handsome 3-1 win at Brentford; and Harrison made a superb debut at Villa Park in the cup.
Luton, on the other hand, unlike last season’s promoted sides who all stayed up, have looked ill-equipped for the demands of their first season back in the top flight for three decades. In that time, the Bedfordshire club have fallen out of the Football League, flirted with administration and fought their way all the back to the top flight and it looks as though this will be a year where they will look to consolidate their financial position on the back of the huge uplift in broadcast revenue and merit payments.
Rob Edwards’s side began the season with a 4-1 defeat at Brighton and a 3-0 reverse at Chelsea but have since tightened up at the back and lost by a single goal to Fulham and West Ham before picking up their first point against 10-man Wolves last weekend.
They travel to Merseyside having been knocked out of the EFL Cup by League One Exeter City, however. Nevertheless, Dyche stressed in his press conference at Finch Farm that there are no easy games and that his side will approach the match in the right mindset.
“You’ve got to be ruthless,” Dyche said in the context of Luton’s struggles so far to adapt to the Premier League. “People do it to us so there’s none of that (sympathy for opposition teams) going on. I respect [Luton’s challenges] but you’ve got to be ruthless. When the whistle blows, we’ve got to play well; we’ve got to deliver a performance; we’ve got to take on the game to win.
“Luton are working hard in games, so we have got to deliver a performance. We certainly take nobody lightly, that’s for sure, and the players know that.”
Vitalii Mykolenko will undergo a late fitness on an unspecified injury before Sean Dyche selects his team that will face Luton Town this weekend.
The Ukrainian full-back was withdrawn at half-time of last night’s impressive win at Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup and is the biggest doubt for Saturday’s clash with the newly-promoted Hatters on Saturday.
Dyche mentioned in his “presser” that Mykolenko’s injury issue, “is something we’ve got to be a little bit careful with,” and did not confirm the full nature of the complaint but seemed content that apart from “a few knocks”, there were no further concerns.
Harrison came through 65 minutes against Villa and could be in line for his first appearance at Goodison Park since joining on loan from Leeds while Calvert-Lewin’s goalscoring exploits in the past few days have pressed his case for a place in the starting XI for a second successive game.
Seamus Coleman, Dele Alli and André Gomes are still ruled out, however, with neither the Irishman nor the Portuguese expected to be in contention until next month at the earliest.
Kick-off: 3pm, Saturday 30 September 2023
Referee: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Paul Tierney
Last Time: Everton 1 – 1 Luton Town (Division 1; 14 March 1992)
Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Young, Gueye, Onana, Garner, McNeil, Doucouré, Calvert-Lewin