Crystal Palace will face a tricky test this weekend as they travel to Goodison Park to face Sam Allardyce, the man who took them to safety, late last season. The English manager is now in charge of Merseyside outfit Everton and will look to consolidate their place in the top half of the table.
He will take on yet another English coach in Roy Hodgson, in what will be a battle between two of the most experienced managers in the league at the moment. Everton are currently 10th in the points table but are fresh from a humiliating loss against Arsenal last weekend. They will look to put that loss behind them but will have to work really hard, as they have now won just one of their last 8 games in all competitions.
Crystal Palace are fresh from back to back draws against West Ham United and Newcastle United, but find themselves in the 14th place, four points away from Everton. The hosts will be confident of a positive result as they are unbeaten against the Eagles in their last six league games.
However, Palace have not lost at Goodison Park in any of their last four visits and will try to steal as many points as they can. Palace’s away form has not been great this season while Everton have won seven of their eight league games at home and will look to improve on it this weekend.
Both teams are expected to look for nothing less than all three points and here is the team news, predicted lineups, predictions and odds for this game:
Team News
Everton
The Toffees have no new injury issues to worry about. Full-back Leighton Baines is finally back from injury but may not play any role in this game. Maarten Stekelenburg is also nearing a return while Ramiro Funes Mori played 45 minutes for the U23s and might find a place on the bench. James McCarthy is definitely ruled out while Seamus Coleman is fit and could start this game.
Expected lineup (4-2-3-1)
Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Williams, Martina; Gueye, Schneiderlin; Walcott, Rooney, Sigurdsson; Tosun
Crystal Palace
The Eagles will be without star winger Wilfried Zaha for the first time in more than a year. He is out for a month and Hodgson needs his other players to step up. The likes of Connor Wickham, Jason Puncheon, Scott Dann, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jeffery Schlupp, Martin Kelly, Julian Speroni and Bakary Sako are all ruled out for this weekend. Alexander Sorloth and Erdal Rakip, the January signings, are both up for selection.
Expected lineup (4-4-2)
Hennessey; Fosu-Mensah, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt; McArthur, Milivojevic, Cabaye, Townsend; Sorloth, Benteke
Odds
Everton – 13/10
Draw – 9/4
Crystal Palace – 13/5
Prediction
Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace