It’s a down-sized Premier League schedule this weekend, as the English top flight is on a winter break period, but Saturday brings an interesting tilt on Merseyside. Roy Hodgson brings his Crystal Palace side to Everton to take on Carlo Ancelotti’s team in a match-up of two high profile managers.
In looking at the team news for this one, the Toffees are still without long-term absentees Andre Gomes and Jean-Philippe Gbamin. The former is reportedly recovering well and is set to return later this month. The latter, unfortunately, is set to undergo more surgery to repair his thigh injury, so his return is still a ways aways.
Everton will also be without the services of Fabian Delph, who is serving a one match ban after seeing red in the win over Watford this past weekend.
Flipping over to the visitors, the Eagles will be sans Cenk Tosunare, Mamadou Sakho and Jeffrey Schlupp. The first two players mentioned are nursing hamstring injuries while Schlupp is dealing with a hip injury.
Everton FC vs Crystal Palace FYIs
Starting XI Predictions for both teams: go to this link
Kickoff: Sat. Feb 8, 12:30pm, Goodison Park
TV/Streaming: BT Sport 1/ BT Sports App
Series History: Crystal Palace wins 13, Draws 17, Everton wins 20
Odds via Sports Bet: Crystal Palace wins 5.5, Draws 3.75, Everton wins 1.57
Result probabilities: Crystal Palace win 16% Draw 25%, Everton win 59%
Referee: David Coote
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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