Sorry its a bit late, but here it is, written by Karl H and Max O Collins.

Everton this week take on Manchester United at Goodison Park (Kick Off Saturday 12pm). Tickets for the game are still available and are now on general sale.

Form Guide:

Everton currently lie 16th in the Barclays Premier League. A mere point separates The Toffees from the relegation zone. The last win for The Blues in all competitions came against Stoke in late August. A worrying stat is that Everton still are yet to record a home win, having picked up only 1 point from the available 12 so far this season. It may still be early days but The Blues need to hit some form quickly or we may find ourselves in real trouble at the wrong end of the table.

Joleon Lescott realises this is going to be a tough encounter but he is quietly confident that we are about to see a change in fortunes; “You want to judge yourself against the best players,” he said. “No doubt Man United are the best team at the moment and they’re champions of Europe and the Premier League. So it’s going to be a massive game and a tough one at that. But again, we’ll go in there confident and know if we play right we can get a result. No one is pleased with the way things have gone so far. But again, the boys are going to be pushing in the right direction to get out of this slump that we’re in, and get ourselves up the league.”

Manchester United have hit hot form and have scored 18 goals in their last 7 games, they are unbeaten since their loss to Liverpool. Their last victory came in midweek against in the Champions League against Celtic at Old Trafford. With Rooney and Berbatov hitting a purple patch our defence will need to recreate some of their form from last season to keep them at bay.

Team News:

Man United, midfielders Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves all remain sidelined; however both Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra could be available after missing the midweek tie against Celtic.

Everton, David Moyes has indicated that he may drop Yakubu, with Saha in line to start against his former club. Tim Cahill serves the final game of a three match suspension. Lars Jacobson remains side lined with the shoulder injury that was picked up on international duty last month. However David Moyes may be able to recall Joseph Yobo, Segundo Castillo and Victor Anichebe who are all fit and raring to go. Tony Hibbert will have a late fitness test.

Odds: United: 4/7 Everton: 9/2 Draw: 12/5

FE Forums Match Thread:

View Paul Lopez’s forum match thread. (New window).

FE writing team Prediction:

Heart– 1-0: A scrappy win with the Yak bagging the goal in the last minute, let’s hope we show some of the passion and desire that saw us win ‘that’ game in 2005.

Head– 0-3: With us playing so poorly we can’t see anything more than a white wash. Hopefully we won’t have to put up with any histrionics from Wayne if he scores his 100th career goal.

Man Utd (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Foster, Brown, Neville, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, O’Shea, Ronaldo, Park, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez.

Everton (from): Howard, Baines, Hibbert, Yobo, Lescott, Jagielka, Arteta, Osman, Fellaini, Pienaar, Vaughan, Saha, Anichebe, Yakubu, Nash, Rodwell, Valente, Jutkiewicz, Gosling, Baxter.

Referee: Alan Wiley (Any chance of an unbiased performance eh Alan?)

View Paul Lopez’s forum match thread.

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EXTRA : Striking Choices.

Will Louis Saha get the nod on Saturday against his former team?

The Frenchman had an injury hit 4 year spell at United scoring 28 goals in 86 appearances. He was often 2nd or 3rd choice striker behind the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and more recently Carlos Tevez. He will be hoping to get one over on his former team mates and score his first goal in blue colours.

Yakubu started the season on good form hitting 4 goals in 5 games. His last goal was in the home tie against Standard Liege. He is currently 6 games without a goal. Some fans have been calling for him to be dropped ahead of the derby clash against the champions. ‘The Yak’ is known for not performing in the big games having not scored any goals last season in the 12 games against the ‘top 4’ in the Premier League. Yakubu is known to play better with another striker with him or with Tim Cahill behind him and last week’s performance against Arsenal showed that when playing up on his own with no natural second striker supporting him he can become exposed and have no real effect on teams. His work rate must surely be upped?

Many have been calling for Moyes to drop his ‘negative tactics’ against the big sides in which he has gone with one up top. This clearly hasn’t worked as the last win against a ‘top 4’ opponent was in March 2007 when Andy Johnsons last minute winner saw off Arsenal. If he reverted to 4-4-2 it would most probably be Saha and Yakubu with the more than capable backup of James Vaughan and Victor Anichebe on the bench.

If he does go positive, something not known generally associated with Moyes then maybe Man Utd maybe subject of a shock come the final whistle. Here’s hoping!

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