Match Preview
Everton return to Goodison Park this weekend to face Wolves for what will be their second home game of the season still searching for their first goal and points of 2023-24.
The Blues’ performance in their opening home fixture against Fulham may have been encouraging in terms of chances created but it was ultimately frustrating because it ended in defeat, while last Sunday’s 4-0 drubbing at Villa was simply alarming.
It means that this weekend’s match, against a side expected to be down at the wrong end of the table with Everton and expected to be there all season, carries inordinate weight so early in the season, at least in terms of supporter sentiment.
The new campaign may yet be young but Sean Dyche is already dealing with absences for key players, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Alex Iwobi ruled out with injuries sustained at Villa Park.
Calvert-Lewin sustained a fractured cheekbone and will be seeing a specialist now that the significant swelling on his face is subsiding before his latest return date can be pencilled in.
Iwobi, meanwhile, suffered a hamstring tear that is expected to sideline him for a few weeks, depriving Dyche of one of his most industrious and creative players.
As is the case with new signing Jack Harrison, who is back on the grass but not yet in full training, Dwight McNeil isn’t expected to play until after the upcoming international break and Seamus Coleman is targeting October for his comeback from knee surgery.
With no new signings through the door, it means that Dyche otherwise has the same squad from which to choose as he tries to fashion a team capable of scoring goals at one end and keeping them out at the other.
Arnaut Danjuma, the standout performer last weekend despite only playing under an hour against Villa, should be ready to start, most likely wide on the left, with James Garner continuing on the right in Iwobi’s absence.
Up front, there is little option but to start the hapless Neal Maupay as the lone striker once more, that is unless Dyche opts for Danjuma up front and Lewis Dobbin on the left flank.
It’s on the defence where most Evertonian eyes will be at 2pm when the teams are announced, however. The defensive partnership of Michael Keane and James Tarkowski has struggled under Dyche and it led to the former being removed from the team in the final few games of last season in favour of Yerry Mina.
The Colombian has left the club but Dyche’s apparent lack of faith in the youthful Jarrad Branthwaite — in his press conference at Finch Farm the manager cited a curtailed pre-season for the former Carlisle centre-half’s lack of minutes thus far — has seen Keane restored to the starting XI but that decision has been met with frustration and mounting angst from fans.
It would be brave of Dyche to overlook Branthwaite on this occasion and he did acknowledge that the 21-year-old is on contention to face Wolves.
For their part, Wolves are still adjusting to life under new boss Gary O’Neil who was drafted in to replace the late-departing Julen Lopetegui and the loss of some regular starters like Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore.
Additionally, Matheus Nunes is a transfer target for Manchester City but Matheus Cunha has made a strong start to the season despite not yet scoring and Hwang Hee-chan, who netted in Wolves’s 4-1 home defeat to Brighton, always does well against the Toffees.
Though they were swept aside by the high-flying Seagulls last weekend, O’Neil’s men were impressive against Manchester United in their first match of the season and were hugely unfortunate not to come away from Old Trafford with something to show for their efforts.
They won’t be a pushover at all for an Everton side short on potency and confidence but the hope is that Dyche and his staff will have been doing as much work on the mental side of the players’ game as the technical and physical ahead of an early-season “six-pointer”.
Kick-off: 3pm, Saturday 26 August 2023
Referee: Craig Pawson
VAR: Graham Scott
Last Time: Everton 1 – 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Patterson, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Young, Gueye, Onana, Garner, Danjuma, Doucouré, Maupay