Next Up: Burnley v Everton

No longer a Boxing Day fixture straight after Christmas, Everton's next match at Burnley has to now take place on 27 December at Turf Moor. 

While the traditional matchday calendar has been stretched across the weekend to accommodate the whims of broadcasters, the mission for David Moyes and his squad remains unchanged: arrest what is showing signs of developing into a worrying losing streak and reclaim the momentum that had us looking upward just a few weeks ago, rather than slidng back down into the bottom half of the Premier League table.

Everton arrive in the old Lancashire milltown sitting 10th in the table, but with a bit of a pre-Christmas hangover following a frustrating 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal last weekend. Despite that setback, the Blues have been showing a little more bite on the road lately, including two precious wins at Old Trafford and the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth.

Burnley, managed by Scott Parker, are in dire straits. Currently 19th and 7 points from safety, they’ve managed just 1 point from their last six matches — a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth last time out. For Everton, this encounter probably assumes the highly dubious proportions of a "must-win" match if David Moyes's European ambitions are to be taken seriously.

But Everton must go into this match again missing a trio of their vital midfield players: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is still out with the hamstring injury that forced him off against Chelsea, while Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye have deserted their club for Afcon appearances with Senegal. 

Jack Grealish has shaken off a hamstring scare and is fit to start but he must get back to strongly influencing games, setting up decent chances, and above all, having a go himself, or his contribution will again be mainly to slow the game down for no ultimate gain.

On the other flank, Dwight McNeil will almost certainly be selected by Moyes to start against his old club. But he has been so poor when unleashed that surely Tyler Dibling should be shown the trust required for him to start the game in an effort to give him the confidence he desperately needs to make the move north a promising boost to his fledgling career as a professional footballer — and not the premature death sentence that it appears to be so far. 

Jarrad Branthwaite remains sidelined for another month, meaning the partnership of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane will continue in the centre of defence against their former club, with Jake O'Brien once again filling in at right-back as he tries to recover from the embarrassment of last week's volleyball move that gifted a penalty and ultimately the game to Arsenal.

Burnley are also depleted by Afcon, missing Lyle Foster, Hannibal Mejbri, and Axel Tuanzebe.

Everton have dominated this fixture recently, winning three of the last four meetings. Burnley’s defensive record is the second-worst in the league (with 34 goals conceded), while Everton’s xG suggests we’ve actually been under-scoring relative to the chances created for the Chuckle Brothers, Beto and Barry, who continue to persist with their battle to the bottom to see who can secure the title of "Worst Premier League Striker in Living Memory". 

Despite the stark difference in talent pools, the standard tried and tested Moyes formula for securing points will undoubtedly be employed: keep it tight at the back; hope Grealish might just provide the spark, and somehow someone can nick one to stay ahead of The Clarets and steal the points.

Turf Moor is rarely "easy" but, against a side that we hope really has forgotten how to win, Everton must ensure they don't hand out any post-Christmas gifts to the bottom-dwellers.

 

---

Reader Comments (1)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()

How to get rid of these ads and support TW