Everton face a difficult fixture away to Chelsea on Sunday and here is how they could line up.
With four wins from their last six games, Everton may just be starting to click now that Marco Silva and his new recruits have had time to settle in at Goodison Park. While there is still plenty of work ahead for Silva and his team, recent results would suggest they are headed in the right direction.
Silva has a 46% win-rate after his opening 13 games at the helm with Everton. This is significantly better than his figures at Hull and Watford, 36% and 30%, respectively. If his team can continue to produce such positive results is another question, but Silva will be confident of battling for a top-seven position in the Premier League this season.
Silva and Everton did some smart transfer business during the summer and five of those signings are in our predicted starting line-up for Sunday’s game.
Lucas Digne has made the left-back spot his own in recent months. Seamus Coleman has been as consistent as ever for the Toffees on the other flank. Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma have been gradually improving together in the centre.
However, the Frenchman misses this fixture is he is only a loan signing for Everton from Chelsea.
Silva had picked the same starting lineup for the last three games so Zouma’s absence on Sunday poses a tough problem for him. Mason Holgate had generally been the centre-back who Silva had used as a squad player this season. However, another summer signing, Yerry Mina, was on the bench for their win over Brighton last weekend and even made a very late appearance, replacing Gylfi Sigurdsson after 90 minutes.
With this in mind, it appears that Mina has overtaken Holgate as next in line when Zouma is unavailable. Sunday’s game at Chelsea could well be Mina’s first start in an Everton jersey.
Leighton Baines and James McCarthy could both miss this game. Baines has an illness while McCarthy is still not fully fit for Silva’s side. Phil Jagielka is just recently returned from a knee injury but the 36-year-old defender is unlikely to feature a Chelsea.
Idrissa Gueye and Andre Gomez will be the two in defensive midfield roles with Sigurdsson, Theo Walcott and Bernard tasked with the creative duties behind Brazilian front man Richarlison.
A lot depends on how Everton can marshal Jorginho in the centre of the park. The Italian international has played the part of a human metronome for Maurizio Sarri’s team this season and Everton will need to stop his distribution in the hope of stopping the home side from ticking.
Seamus Coleman is also going to have a huge part to play on Sunday as he looks to snuff out any threat posed by arguably the Premier League’s player of the season so far, Eden Hazard.
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