Everton vs Arsenal Goodison Park 15th August 5.30pm Live on Espn

Everton start the new campaign hosting Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side badly weakened in the summer. Both Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure left the Gunners heading north to Man City, for a combined fee of around £40 million. Everton’s summer has been unsurprisingly quiet and the only major movement has been the re-signing of Jo on loan. There has been other signings such as Anton Peterlin, Femi Orenuga and Luke Garbutt but they are unlikely to make a big difference in their first term at Goodison. Arsenal’s only major signing was the £10mill capture of Thomas Vermaelan on a five year deal. Everton finished 9 points behind Arsenal last year finishing one place below at 5th. The last meeting between the sides was the 1-1 draw at Goodison, Tim Cahill putting the blues ahead before Robin Van Persie struck in injury time to steal a point. The game is a sell out according to Everton.

Current Form
Everton’s’ pre season was a mixed bag in terms of results, the first friendly was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Bury, Saha netting for Everton. A few days later and a short trip to Rochdale was well worth the effort for travelling fans as the blues prevailed 4-1, Shane Duffy, an own goal and Jo twice netting. Other games included a 1-0 loss to River Plate, a penalty win against MLS All Stars, a 2-2 draw away to Coventry, a 2-1 defeat to Blackpool and finally a 2-1 win at home to Malaga with Louis Saha and Leon Osman scoring.

Arsenal won most of their pre season friendlies but their summer has been mainly focused on selling players and trying to replace them.

Team News
Everton will have Jo available for the game after he recovered from a slight ankle injury occured at Blackpool. However Steven Pienaar is a doubt after picking up an injury on international duty in South Africa. Yakubu is not yet ready for the game but may feature on the bench next Thursday. Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka and Victor Anichebe are still not ready to return.

Arsenal will hand a debut to new defender Vermaelan. Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri, Johan Djorou and Tomas Rosicky aren’t ready to play and wont feature at all. Eduardo has returned to training after an ankle injury and will be in the 18. Lukasz Fabianski is also out . Abou Diaby is a slight doubt.

Expected Line ups
—————————Howard————————–
—Hibbert———Yobo————–Lescott——Baines—
—————————Neville—————————
–Osman——–Fellaini————Cahill———-Pienaar—-
—————————Saha—————————–

—————————Almunia————————–
–Sagna——- Gallas————-Senderos—Vermaelan—–
-Van Persie—–Fabregas———-Diaby——-Gibbs———
—————-Bendtner———Eduardo——————-

Match Prediction
Everton 2-1 Arsenal- Everton will be desperate to please the 40,000 crowd as a mixed pre season along with lack of transfers has added some tension around Goodison Park, with Fellaini, Cahill and Lescott available i’m expecting a few dangerous set pieces to result in maybe 1 or 2 goals for Everton as Arsenals average height has lowered from 6’2 to 5’11 making them a good target for set pieces.

By Paul Lopez

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