On Monday evening Everton will be back in action as they welcome Crystal Palace to Goodison Park having sat back all weekend watching their European rivals play.
Currently sitting in eighth place Carlo Ancelotti’s team need to keep up with the chasing pack and hope for a slip or two from their rivals to get into one of the European places.
Everton must turn round their horrid home form to take advantage of the dropped points from teams around them with Leicester City losing and Tottenham drawing.
Looking at this season that’ll be a tough ask as bottom half teams have enjoyed their time spent at Goodison Park and Crystal Palace will hope to keep that trend going.
However all normal trends could change as something very rare may happen during the 90 minutes.
Jean-Phillips Gbamin could play a part.
Yes, you did read that correctly and no the world isn’t ending.
Gbamin after only two outings for Everton in two years is finally ready to set foot onto a football pitch again.
Ancelotti said in his press conference: “It’s really good news, he trained this week, he trained last week. He is in a good condition, I think the medical staff did a fantastic job on him.
“He’s ready to play. We can say he is back, I don’t know if he’ll play on Monday but for sure he will be involved.”
It is unlikely that he will be rushed in but with Abdoulaye Doucoure and Fabian Delph both unavailable the timing is ideal to boost the numbers in midfield.
Bernard and Jordan Pickford will be the other absentees for the game with Robin Olsen fit and ready to start in goal.
James Rodriguez will also be ready and Ancelotti seems confident that the Colombian can be a big help for Everton in the run-in, as he said: “James is well and in a good condition, his physicality is good at the moment.
“It’s important for us to have James back at his best. At the start of the season he helped a lot, above all in front.
“We hope he will do the same, I am quite confident because I see him in training showing a good condition and attitude”
Supporters will be buzzing if they get to see James play a good run of games again as injuries have affected his consistency.
Rodriguez, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin up top together can cause any side some problems although Crystal Palace also have a certain someone who is capable of causing the same issue.
Everton fans will know a lot about him as he has been one of the clubs main transfer targets in recent years.
Wilfried Zaha will be back fit and ready to show Everton what they’ve been missing.
The silky winger is bound to have a big say on the result of the game because if he is on his best form, he’s the type of player to quite easily singlehandedly win his side the game.
It’ll be very interesting to see if the Everton backline can keep him relatively quiet, just like they did in the reverse fixture which they won 2-1.
Everton are at the point in the season now where if they lose, then it’s good bye to European football next season.It’s a must-win game if the Blues want something to play for in the final straight of this funny old campaign.
Written by Elliot Thompson
