Everton v Newcastle United

[Shogun]

Everton v Newcastle United
Goodison Park
Wednesday 3rd February 19:45
Premier League Match #24

Everton's last 5 matches

Everton 2-0 Dagenham and Redbridge - FA Cup (Kone, Mirallas Pen)
Manchester City 0-0 Everton
Chelsea 3-3 Everton (O.G, Mirallas, Funes Mori)
Manchester City 3-1 Everton - Capital One Cup (Barkley)
Carlisle United 0-3 Everton (Kone, Lennon, Barkley)

Newcastle United's last 5 matches

Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle United
Watford 1-0 Newcastle United FA Cup
Newcastle United 3-3 Manchester United (Wijnaldum, Mitrovic Pen, Dummett)
Newcastle United 2-1 West Ham United (Perez, Wijnaldum)
Watford 2-1 Newcastle United (Lascelles)

Everton

It's been a pretty long week for Everton, starting with defeat to Swansea in their last league match and then exiting the Capital One Cup to follow but they steadied the ship somewhat with a comfortable victory over Carlisle United in the FA Cup. The major concern for Roberto Martinez will be that his side have still only won three league matches since the end of September and those all came against the current bottom three. Everton's 4-0 victory over Aston Villa in November was the last time Everton picked up three points from a league match at Goodison Park, since then the Toffees have picked up just 9 points from the following 10 fixtures (W1 D6 L3) and only Aston Villa (8) have picked up fewer points during that period. Everton have kept a league-low of just one clean sheet this season which is countered by the fact they boast a league-high record of scoring from 18.8% of their total shots this season. Everton have lost just one of their last eight Premier League meetings with Newcastle (W6 D1 L1) and they've struck three goals in four of those fixtures. Romelu Lukaku has five goals and four assists in his seven Premier League appearances against the Magpies.

Ross Barkley is in line for his 100th Premier League appearance for Everton should he play in this fixture which will make him the second youngest Everton player to achieve that milestone after Michael Ball. Barkley has an excellent record against Newcastle as the midfielder has scored in three of his five appearances and won four of the five fixtures whilst he's scored in his last two appearances for Everton and will be looking to score in three consecutive matches for the very first time. Georginio Wijnaldum is Newcastle's top scorer in the league and he has been directly involved in almost half of their Premier League goals this season. Barkley's name appears in a top five list of two particular statistics this season, the first is that he's won 49 freekicks which is the fifth most in the league and the second is that he's completed 74 successful dribbles this season, only Mahrez (75) and Zaha (80) have completed more. All nine of Wijnaldum's goals this season have come at St James' Park.

Possible Line-Ups

Newcastle United

Due to their early exits from both cup competitions, Newcastle haven't played for the last ten days whilst their opponents have played three matches during that period which should give the Magpies an advantage. However, Newcastle did lose their third consecutive away match last weekend with a 2-1 defeat to Watford and only Aston Villa (6) have taken fewer points on the road than Newcastle (7) this season. Newcastle have failed to score in three of their four previous meetings with Everton and they've scored a league-low of just 6 goals in 11 away matches this season and they have failed to score in six of those matches which is a league-high they share with Liverpool. Newcastle played a behind closed doors friendly last week which you would assume would have little impact but they did lose 6-0 to their local rivals Sunderland. Newcastle have conceded more goals from outside the box (7) than any other Premier League side this season.

Statistics & Injuries

[kramer0]

How many goals do we think Andros Townsend is going to score?

[GLewis]

Agreeing with our starting lineup there.

Hopefully Dummett would still be having nightmares about Deulofeu's performance against him at the end of 13/14.

The rest of their team doesn't look that bad to be fair. Certainly they've got energy in the midfield and up front.

Given how last night's results went we need a win to keep in sight of the top 6, otherwise 9/10 points to West Ham is quite a lot to catch over just 14 remaining games.

7th is obviously close with a win.

At the other end however a loss would mean we'd probably dip below Chelsea to 13th and we'd only be 6 points above the bottom 3...

[Redartin]

fuckers would need to win this,and easily at that. this could be the only game l get to this season so it'd need to be a good one.

[ally2]

An early goal for us might help to calm things down but we all know that it probably won't be enough. I'm actually not looking forward to this. The only thing that gives me encouragement is that McClaren is their manager.

[Macca77]

Maybe see our strongest back 4 for the first time all season

[Cassius]

All nine of Wijnaldum's goals this season have come at St James' Park.

Thanks Shogs. My money is on him to score at least one of the two customary goals we'll give to the opposition tonight.

I imagine that they'll have their tails up a bit with their new signings and will attempt to come at us, which I think will suit us.

[Juanito]

Thanks Shogs. My money is on him to score at least one of the two customary goals we'll give to the opposition tonight.

I imagine that they'll have their tails up a bit with their new signings and will attempt to come at us, which I think will suit us.

Just about to add that. "All nine of Wijnaldum's goals this season have come at St James' Park" Cue Wijnaldum brace.

[Heisenberg]

Lose this and we could potentially be 2 weeks away from the relegation zone

[TSGun]

We can't lose this can we?

[Bluedylan]

We'll win this. Newcastle are much more of a basket case club than we are. Fume averted, onwards and upwards.

[Chris]

My brother has a couple of spare adult season tickets going for 20 quid each tonight. Upper Bullens on the half way line.

[Chris]

Gone now!

[blargins]

Looking at the win/draw/loss table above, how come our only league cup game ended in a draw? How did either team progress if it was a draw?

[GLewis]

Looking at the win/draw/loss table above, how come our only league cup game ended in a draw? How did either team progress if it was a draw?

We won on pens in 2002/03.

But all matches that end with a shoot out are technically classed as draws.