The Premier League weekend concludes with a Monday Night Football which looks like being a potential defining evening for the two teams in action as Everton welcome Arsenal to Goodison Park for a crucial showdown.
The pressure is mounting on Everton boss Rafael Benitez so he will know the importance of a win here while Arsenal will move back into fifth should they come away from their trip to Merseyside with three points.
Where to watch
The match will form a part of the Monday Night Football programme which will be shown on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels. The show begins at 7pm with kick off at Goodison Park at 8pm.
Everton
If you think back to the beginning of the season Everton are one of the early pacesetters. Injuries have since set in and they will start this match without a win in their last eight matches. I think most clubs would appreciate the injury issues that they have had to endure and would cut the manager some slack but the problem Benitez has is that he is still heavily associated with the rival club across Stanley Park and as far as they are concerned he can’t afford these poor spells regardless of the situation.
In any winless run you tend to find the problem is scoring goals and that is very much the case for Everton. They have only found the net five times in their last eight matches and are missing Dominic Calvert-Lewin like you wouldn’t believe. The problems really come when a team then starts shipping a crazy amount of goals and that is happening too so Everton need a change in fortunes quickly. They look like they have recognised that and have given their director of football the boot so you sense changes will come along in January.
Arsenal
It has been completely the opposite season for Arsenal. They started it in terrible fashion with the pressure ramping up on Mikel Arteta after a summer of reasonably heavy spending. They lost their opening three matches in pretty convincing fashion but then went on an eight-match spell without losing before dropping two of their last three encounters. They were away to Liverpool and Manchester United though so they weren’t exactly terrible results.
This isn’t the swashbuckling, entertaining Arsenal side that we got used to under Arsene Wenger and at times they invite far too much pressure onto themselves, especially when they are in front, but the fears of how bad they might be at the start of the season have at least disappeared even if they are not yet the side that will finish where many supporters expect them to. A win here would set them up for the festive period nicely.
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Team News
Everton could have defender Yerry Mina back for this match after he has been out for a couple of months with injury. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is not expected to feature though. Salomon Rondon will miss out with injury but Mason Holgate is available again after suspension.
Bukayo Saka could only come off the bench at Old Trafford last week due to a bit of a niggle but he is expected to be available for the whole game here. Granit Xhaka and Sead Kolasinac are among the long-term injury victims.
Betting
I like the idea of both teams to find the back of the net here. That might not be the most obvious bet when you consider that Everton have only scored five times in their last eight matches but the only home games they haven’t scored in were against Tottenham when both teams were intent on not losing and West Ham. Why I fancy Everton to score though is because Arsenal surrender a lot of chances, especially on the road.
It always concerns me when a goalkeeper is the standout player in a side over a fair piece of time and that has been the case with Aaron Ramsdale but no keeper can go on making the level of saves he has been making and losses at Liverpool and Manchester United showed that but even Newcastle forced some brilliant saves from the England international. I expect Arsenal to have enough about them to score against a disorganised Everton side so both teams scoring looks likely to me.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Betfair
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