Everton have their season pretty much sorted out. They know their incapability against the top five teams and losses against them have hardly affected their performances against the rest of the teams. The Toffees have had a somewhat interrupted run of late. Barring the away losses to Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, Everton haven’t lost since Christmas.
Their consistent performances have brought them on level points with sixth-placed Arsenal and they have a real chance of overtaking them this week as the North-London club doesn’t play owing to their FA Cup commitments.
Everton travel to the London Stadium next to play a struggling West Ham United this weekend, and although Everton’s away form hasn’t been quite encouraging so far, their record against West Ham is commendable. The Hammers have won just one of their last 17 fixtures against Everton. The Toffees haven’t lost away to the Hammers since April 2007 and will definitely be in high spirits.
London stadium hasn’t panned out to be a lucky venue for the side just yet as they have collected just 21 points from 16 games there.
Predicted Everton XI vs West Ham United XI
Defence
Joel Robles will start under the bar. After starting the season as the second fiddle to Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, the Spaniard has got his big chance to impress and has done decently, conceding 17 goals in 18 outings.
Koeman is unlikely to change his back line from the last game as the Dutch gaffer has finally found a set defence after a sudden injury to their crucial man, Seamus Coleman. Leighton Baines and Mason Holgate will start on the defensive flanks with Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams starting from the middle.
Jagielka has made a remarkable comeback to the first team after getting benched for Ramiro Funes Mori. Now, with the Argentine international out for the season with a meniscus injury, the English centre-half has come with a bang scoring a goal in each of the last three games.
Midfield
Koeman might have found a more balanced cum attacking field set with three central midfielders in Tom Davies, Morgan Schneiderlin and Idrissa Gueye. With Davies and Gueye moving up and down, Schneiderlin can sit back and hold the midfield.
Attack
Pretty much like Chelsea, who keeps their best players in the attacking third behind the target man, Everton started Ross Barkley and Kevin Mirallas as attacking midfielders against Burnley and it turned out well.
The attack will be spearheaded by the magnificent Romelu Lukaku, who can’t stop scoring at the moment.
