Venue: Goodison Park
Date: 06/01/2015
Kick-off: 19:45 (BST)
Everton welcome West Ham United to Goodison Park to contest the 3rd round FA Cup clash on Tuesday night and the match will probably be viewed as a must win by manager Roberto Martinez.
Everton were woeful once again as they succumbed to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of Hull City on New Years’ Day and the loss has led to alarm bells being rung at the Blue half of Merseyside.
The best now Everton can seemingly hope for this season is a top half finish and the pressure is most certainly starting to grow on manager Roberto Martinez’s shoulders.
Therefore, the upcoming FA Cup clash against West Ham United will probably be seen as a welcome distraction for the Toffees but on the flipside, if Everton suffer another defeat – Martinez will surely start to feel the pressure from the fans.
Everton Team News
Heading into the game, Martinez will be without the services of Antolin Alcaraz while James McCarthy has been ruled out due to a hamstring problem. Tim Howard, Leon Osman and Steven Pienaar are long term absentees, and are unlikely to feature for the clash.
In the absence of Howard, Joel Robles will be manning the goal for the Toffees while John Stones should come in at central defence to replace Alcaraz. The experienced trio of Seamus Coleman, Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines should complete the backline.
With McCarthy, Osman and Darron Gibson all set to miss out once again, Martinez will probably go with Muhamed Besic at the middle of the park and he should partner the experienced Gareth Barry.
Further up the pitch, wholesale changes could be seen as the attacking trio of Kevin Mirallas, Ross Barkley and Steven Naismith were all ineffective against Hull City and there is a possibility that all three players could be dropped for the clash against West Ham at the expense of Aiden McGeady, Christian Atsu and Samuel Eto’o.
Romelu Lukaku will in all probability be handed a chance to lead the line on Tuesday and he will be looking to impress following a couple of poor performances over the last few weeks.
Teams
Everton (Probable XI): Robles; Baines, Jagielka, Stones, Coleman; Barry, Besic; McGeady, Eto’o, Barkley; Lukaku
West Ham United (Probable XI): Jaaskelainen; Cresswell, Reid, Collins, Jenkinson; Amalfitano, Song, Downing, Jarvis; Nolan, Carroll
Form
Everton: W L L L L
West Ham United: D W L L D
Last Meeting
22/11/2014 Everton 2 – 1 West Ham United
01/03/2014 Everton 1 – 0 West Ham United
Prediction
It is evident that Everton are currently in a terrible rut and simply cannot seem to buy a win at the moment. Much to the worry of the Everton faithful, the Toffees have not performed at all well over the past few weeks and the matches that they did lose were deserved defeats.
Everton do not possess a poor squad but they simply have not performed well enough to claim anything and unless the Toffees put in an improved performance against West Ham United on Tuesday night, there is a grave danger that they will slump to another defeat.
As a solace for Everton though, West Ham United have also not played all that well during the past few weeks and the Toffees do hold the upper hand in terms of results in the recent meetings between the two sides.
The match will surely be a full blooded FA Cup clash but considering the fact that the two teams are a bit shaken on confidence, a draw could be the most likely result and forcing a replay at Boleyn Ground later on.
Everton 1 – 1 West Ham United
