Match Preview: Everton v Villa

by Dek Hogan

Everton's creaky old ground

Who are we playing?
Everton on Saturday 21st November at 3pm

Where are we playing?
Goodison Park
Goodison Rd,
Liverpool,
Merseyside
L4 4EL

Can I go? Not unless you've bagged a ticket already. They've only given us the lower tier, which is odd considering the strength of our away support. If you've been, you'll know how shite the view is down there.

Easy to get to?
Yep, though the train journey has been known to descend into farce on occasion.

Can I watch it on telly
Saturday 3 o'clocker so you'll need a stream or a pub with a dodgy dish.

Big game?

Huge. They are ALL HUGE from here on in.

Rémi Garde hit the ground running with a deserved 0-0 draw against high flying Manchester City.

His initial impact was not just "new manager bounce".  For a kick off, his team selection actually made sense, unlike the bizarre line-ups we were forced to endure from Timbo and KMac.

There was also evidence that team were trying to play some decent football. They seemed far more confident on the ball and certainly weren't dwelling on it in possession, with some swift accurate passing in evidence. If Rémi can add a bit more movement to the mix, we may just start to be fun watch again when we have the ball.

We also showed far intent to press the ball when the opposition were in possession - to be fair, there were signs of this in the Spurs game - but it's fairly obvious that if you put the other team under pressure, they'll find things a bit tougher.

Let's be honest though, we have a mountain to climb if we are to have even a chance of Premiership and getting that first win - sooner rather than later - will be absolutely key.

No team is going to roll over and let us take three points though, certainly not Everton and in any other circumstances, nabbing a point up there would be considered a result.

Sadly though, things are desperate now and without a win since the first match of the season, we need to take a win by any means possible.

We need level headed leadership so captain Micah Richards needs to channel his anger and not let himself and us down by losing his rag the way he did in the Swansea game.

Typical Everton fan

Despite the vastly improved performance against Citeh, Garde still needs to come up with some sort of goal threat. It remains very difficult to see where the goals are going to come from at the moment

Do Everton boast any famous fans?
Well there's Claire Sweeney off of Brookside, a couple of The Beatles and Andy Burnham off of the Labour Party.

We've got David Bradley.

So we win.

Ouch

Who's playing for us?

The international break probably hasn't done Garde any favours and he attempts to get to know his squad. As a a consequence, it would be no surprise if he played a similar line up to the one that started the last game.

The big question is who replaces the stricken Jordan Amavi at left back. Kieran Richardson would seem the obvious - if unpopular - choice but there are other options, Crespo being one. Sherwood liked the look of young Kinsella but Garde

Tim Howard's partner

may have other ideas. Lescott (god help us) and Ciaran Clark may be options.

Who's playing for them
Gerard Deulofeu is starting to look the bizzo and could carry a goal threat. If we want to score, we'll have to get past Tim Howard.



Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• We've beaten Everton on 80 occasions while they have 80 wins over us - so this is the decider!. There have been 58 draws.

• Our first ever league meeting was in September 1888. Dennis Hodgetts scored both of our goals in a 2-1 triumph.

• Our last win at Goodison was back in December 2008. Two goals from Ashley Young and one from Steve Sidwell saw us squeak through 3-2 despite a brace from Joleon Lescott.

Prediction
1-1 draw (if we can manage to score)