Bernard and Anthony Gordon are in line to make their first starts of the Premier League season for Everton in their trip to Southampton, Carlo Ancelotti has told the Toffees’ official website.
It speaks volumes about the strength in depth at Ancelotti’s disposal these days that neither a £100,000-a-week Brazilian nor one of England’s most exciting youngsters have found game time easy to come by of late.
But with Richarlison suspended and the mercurial James Rodriguez suffering a knock against Liverpool, an opportunity has suddenly emerged for fringe players.
Neither Bernard nor Gordon have played a single second of top-flight football this term – but that could change at St Mary’s on Sunday.
“We are working this week on this and I think we are going to choose a good line-up for the game against Southampton. We have a lot of opportunities to replace Richarlison and James,” says Ancelotti, who is also mulling over whether to include Alex Iwobi in his line-up.
“Alex is a player who works hard. He is fast and, with his quality, he can help the team be better in certain situations.
“He has an opportunity to play but also we have Bernard and Anthony Gordon.”
Iwobi has struggled to live up to his eye-watering £40 million price tag at Goodison Park but the former Arsenal youngster has looked like a man with a point to prove in recent weeks.
And if he can replicate his glittering performance against Brighton over the next couple of weeks, there’s no guarantee Richarlison will walk back into the team when his three-match ban is over.
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