Prediction: Everton vs West Bromwich

26th November 2010

The two teams sit tied on points in the bottom part of the table, albeit with completely different ambitions. Everton desperately need a victory to return to where they belong, whereas West Brom are hoping to stop their dismal run of results and thus improve their chances of avoiding the drop.

Things are hardly peachy for Everton this season, but the Toffees still have the time to turn it all around. The weak pre-season tour of Australia showed like a very poor move even if the team won all pre-season games, as the lack of strong matches really affected the Toffees’ start to the season. David Moyes’ side needed a lot of time to recover from it and then entered a good run of results in October, but the recent performances have also been under par, so Everton really need to beat West Brom if they are to start climbing the Premier League table. The Toffees have shown some improvement as they held Sunderland to a 2:2 draw and are now expected to build on that result. Poor form of strikers Saha, Yakubu and Beckford remains the biggest problem, so David Moyes must be delighted that Cahill and Arteta are scoring goals for fun this term. Osman and Fellaini are the only players missing for the hosts since Victor Anichebe is back to contention after playing full 90 minutes for the reserves.

West Brom are another one of the promoted sides that enjoyed a near perfect start to the season but are now struggling to stop the disappointing run that threatens to hurt their survival bid. The Baggies were always going to have problems as their results were not in accordance with their qualities and the recent run is nothing more than they have deserved for the poor showings. The fact that West Brom picked just one point from games against Blackpool, Manchester City, West Ham, Wigan and Stoke should really worry Roberto Di Mateo as most of these sides are genuine relegation strugglers. Seeing that the players are also in very poor spirits after the 3:0 home defeat to Stoke, I really don’t see how West Brom will arrest their current downtrend in form. Boss Di Mateo faces a real selection headache with Brunt, Miller, Morrison and Reid all doubtful for this match, while Olsson is definitely out.

Conclusion

Everton are far from their best at the moment but the Toffees are playing well are they should have enough in them to dispose of out-of-form Baggies. West Brom have been all over the place during the last few weeks and they would have to show something special in order to pull of a surprise at Goodison.

Verdict: Home win Everton (1)

Best Odds: 4/7

Bookmaker: Ladbrokes