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Everton vs Sheffield United: 21/09/2019 – match preview and predicted starting XIs

Everton vs Sheffield United

Date: 21/09/2019 

K/O: 15:00

Venue: Goodison Park

Referee: Simon Hooper

Everton will look to rectify their defeat against the Cherries last week as they face a Sheffield United side who have had a fantastic start to the season, despite their loss to the Saints last week.

Everton have had a rocky start to the Premier League and currently sit level on points with both Southampton and Crystal Palace. The Toffee’s had an encouraging summer, signing the highly-rated Juventus striker Moise Kean and Iwobi from Arsenal.

With these two additions, Everton have a really strong side who should be pushing into the top six and competing for places against the likes of Leicester. But five games in and only two wins, Marco Silva’s side have not performed to their expected level.

Sheffield United, on the other hand, will be pleased with their opening five games. As a newly promoted side, not being sat in the bottom three early on will give them great confidence going into the rest of the season. In terms of fixtures, it could be argued that the Blades have had a kind introduction to the Premier League, but over the next few games, visits from both Liverpool and Arsenal will surely provide a great test for United.

Last week out Everton were left in the dirt by a fantastic display from Eddie Howe’s side. Two well taken second-half goals from Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser insured that the three points were theirs despite a Calvert-Lewin consolation.

Everton will surely be looking at where it went wrong, and it has to go down as a lack of clinical finishing. It could be said even that the Toffee’s dominated the ball having 60% possession and recording more chances than their opponents. This week could prove to be much of the same, as Sheffield are not likely to go toe-to-toe with Everton so they will probably have much more of the ball. It will all go down to who can take their chances, and last week Everton weren’t very good at it.

Sheffield United fans have felt bitter-sweet coming away from their loss to Southampton last week.  It would have been a tough loss to take, as for much of the game the Blades were dominant having many more chances, and even having a McBurnie goal disallowed by VAR. Similarly to their opponents this week, they had enough chances to put the game to bed and win the game, so this weekend’s encounter could go either way.

Team News

Everton

Andre Gomes sat out of Everton’s trip to AFC Bournemouth with a rib injury after failing a fitness test last week. The seriousness of the injury has not yet been confirmed but he will be assessed on a daily basis. This means that it will most likely be Schneiderlin and Delph in the heart of the Everton side.

Marko Silva commented on the issue saying, “He felt something after the Wolves match. He tried to work during the week but in the last days he felt it again.” “It’s the ribs. It’s something we will have to see day by day how he recovers from that situation. What we want to do is get him ready as fast as we can.”

Elsewhere for Everton Jonas Lossl remains sidelined with a calf injury with Stekelenburg taking his place on the bench for Everton’s last few games. One of the latest additions to the Toffee’s, Gbamin will miss up to eight weeks after suffering a thigh injury in training. The news will be a blow for Everton after the £25m signing made an impressive full debut in the win over Watford.

Sheffield United 

Sheffield United have been relatively fortunate in terms of injuries so far this season and have no new concerns for this weekends game in Merseyside.

However, Chris Wilder will be without both Billy Sharp, who picked up a red card last weekend and Muhamed Besic who is ineligible to face his parent club.

There has been plenty of rotation up-front for the Blades and we may see further changes on this weekend. Wilder mentioned that Callum Robinson had missed out against Southampton because of “a few issues coming back from international duty”, the midfielder might be available for Saturday’s clash though which would be a huge boost for them.

Predicted Starting XI’s

Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Mina, Digne; Schneiderlin, Delph; Richarlison, Sigurdsson, Iwobi; Kean

Sheffield United (5-3-2): Henderson; Basham, Egan, O’Connell; Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens; Robinson, McBurnie

Score prediction: Everton 3 Sheffield United 1

The Blades have had a great start to life in the Premier League, but Everton are a side that really need to turn up the heat in order to progress up the table, and I can’t see them not exploiting United’s weaker defence.

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