Everton take on Wolverhampton Wanderers in the penultimate Premier League fixture before the international break.
Goals have been hard to come by for these two sides this season, with no club having scored fewer than the Toffees – although Marco Silva’s side, of course, have played a game fewer than 16 other teams.
Wolves themselves have only hit the back of the net on two occasions, one of which was a stoppage-time penalty from Raul Jimenez (£7.4m) that salvaged a point against Burnley last weekend.
Jimenez starts this afternoon but for once he won’t be joined by his regular striker partner Diogo Jota (£6.4m), who is only among the substitutes.
Jota fails to start a Premier League match for the first time since Gameweek 21 of last season.
Jonny (£5.5m) and Joao Moutinho (£5.5m) are also rotated from the Europa League tie against Torino on Thursday, while Matt Doherty (£6.0m) misses out altogether.
Patrick Cutrone (£5.8m) is handed his first league start for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, while Adama Traore (£5.0m) and Ruben Vinagre (£4.4m) are trusted with the wing-back roles.
After being patient with his new signings so far, Marco Silva gives full league debuts to three of his summer recruits: Moise Kean (£6.8m), Alex Iwobi (£5.9m) and Fabian Delph (£5.4m).
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.9m), Bernard (£6.5m) and Morgan Schneiderlin (£4.5m) are the men to make way from the Gameweek 3 starting XI but Seamus Coleman (£5.5m) keeps his place at right-back, with Djibril Sidibe (£5.4m) only on the bench.
Lucas Digne (£6.1m), Jordan Pickford (£5.6m), Leander Dendoncker (£4.5m) and Jimenez are the only players on show at Goodison Park who are owned by more than 10% of FPL bosses, with Digne the most-popular option.
While goals have been hard to come by, the ball hasn’t been flying into the net at the other end: no club has kept more Premier League clean sheets than the Toffees (two) this season, while no side has shipped fewer goals than Everton or Wolves (two each) – although they are, of course, a game behind.
Everton XI: Pickford, Digne, Mina, Keane, Coleman, Delph, Gomes, Iwobi, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Kean.
Wolves XI: Patrício, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Traoré, Dendoncker, Rúben Neves, Saïss, Rúben Vinagre, Jiménez, Cutrone.
4 years, 7 months agoJota turned out to be a worse option than Adams 🙂