Saints At Everton The Preview
Friday, 15th Apr 2016 11:59

Saints aim to win at Goodison for the first time in 18 years and they won't have a better chance to do so.

Saints travel to Merseyside as one of the form sides since the turn of the year with only Leicester and Tottenham amassing more points, in contrast Everton are barely above the bottom three in this medium term form table.

Add to that the fact the Toffees not only have a big match with Liverpool in midweek after the Saints game followed by an FA Cup semi final date with Manchester United and it's easy to hope that they will have their eyes on more important games that the visit of Saints.

They are also suffering from injury and suspension problems with at least four set to miss out through injury and another suspended, meaning half their team will be out and perhaps more if Martinez decides to rest others.

That gives Saints the ideal opportunity to go to Goodison and return with all three points, the downside is we will have to do it without Charlie Austin, but Steven Davis returns and we can recall Juanmi to the bench.

So we should head to the North West with confidence, we need to do what we do well and that is breaking at speed and harassing their defence with the pace of Long and Mane not to mention the in form Pelle.

It's a vital game for Saints, due to our early season slip ups we are playing catch up, but there is no reason why we should not win at Everton and then at Villa a week later, but one game at a time and lets get this one under our belts.

Teamwise i expect Steven Davis to return in midfield with the key possible changes for Koeman being Soares for Martina, Romeu for Clasie and Davis for Tadic.

So for me starting line up

Forster

Soares, Fonte, Van Dijk, Bertrand

Mane, Wanyama, Romeu, Davis, Long

Pelle

Subs Steklenburg, Martina, Targett, Rodriguez, Tadic, Juanmi, Clasie

Good strong team with good choices off the bench.

Photo: Action Images

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JGH added 12:33 - Apr 15 No Ward-Prowse in the squad?
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IWOZTHERE added 12:49 - Apr 15 The only one I remember was in the 70's , last match of the season, won 3-0 and still went down. I hope Ron organises more support for Martina/Cedric to cover the forward runs, particularly if Baines plays. Surely it's our turn to win up there?
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SanMarco added 13:06 - Apr 15 There was that 2-0 when Kevin Davies scored a great goal in the Dave Jones era + did we win there 1-0 under Hoddle?? Also I remember 0-8 and 1-7...
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BaselSaint added 14:26 - Apr 15 I hope they don't get that weird malaise that comes over them from time to time. They should be pumped as we push for a European spot.
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halftimeorange added 14:28 - Apr 15

Three things should control the outcome of this fixture - a) our ability to smother Lukaku who has previously bullied our defence, particularly Fonte - b) whether the Everton players believe they are playing for their cup semi-final places - c) whether the Everton players want Martinez to remain their manager as many of the home crowd are hostile towards him. Oh, I almost forgot, also which Saints team turns up - the dominating first half or the languid and ineffectual second half.