Match Preview
Everton could have Amadou Onana back in the side for this weekend’s trip to the Etihad Stadium to face reigning champions and treble winners, Manchester City.
The Belgian missed the goalless draw at Fulham and last Saturday’s 2-2 with Tottenham with fluid on his knee from a knock he picked up in the cup tie against Luton but has returned to first team training and is likely to be in contention for a place in the team.
Abdoulaye Doucouré is also “back on the grass”, in Sean Dyche’s favoured, parlance but while the manager reported that the Frenchman is making good progress, Saturday’s game will come too soon for him.
A more likely target for Doucouré will be the more important home clash with struggling Crystal Palace under the lights at Goodison Park on 19 February.
Arnaut Danjuma and André Gomes are ruled out, but both Séamus Coleman and Ashley Young continue to build their fitness and both could start this weekend.
City, for their part, are close to full strength, with Erling Haaland, and Kevin de Bruyne back in the lineup while Phil Foden is in ominous form, having scored a hat-trick at Brentford on Monday night.
That win brought Pep Guardiola’s team to within two points of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, so, with the bit very much between their teeth, City are unlikely to take their foot off the pedal to any degree against the Toffees.
Given the Manchester side’s dominance of domestic English football for match of the past decade, it is no surprise that Everton have not won on this ground in that time.
Indeed, you have to go back to December 2010 for the last time Everton came away from this part of Manchester with all three points but they did gut out a draw in this fixture last season, courtesy of a worldie from Damarai Gray, and Dyche will no doubt set his team out to defend stoutly just as Frank Lampard did that New Year’s Eve fixture at the end of 2022.
Then it’s just a case of hoping to carve something out on the break or from set-pieces in the hope of becoming one of the few sides to upset the Guardiola machine on their own turf.
Dyche, himself, will, of course, not be taking up his customary place in the manager’s technical area having picked up a one-game touchline ban for picking up his third booking of the season.
He called for more understanding from the referees when it comes to coaches contesting decisions from the sidelines.
“I think there should be a bit more tolerance,” Dyche said. “The fourth official is there and if deep down they are thinking the referee might have that one wrong, I don’t see why you are booked for it.
“That’s the moment when they should use a bit of their game understanding and say ‘OK, he maybe got that one wrong but we need you to stay in the technical area’.
“I think that can be a calming down moment.”
Kick-off: 12:30pm, Saturday 10 February, 2024
Referee: John Brooks
VAR: Michael Oliver
Last Time: Manchester City 1 – 1 Everton
Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Coleman, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Garner, Young, McNeil, Harrison, Calvert-Lewin