Everton aiming to avoid a third successive league defeat as they face an in-form Wolves side

Embed from Getty Images

Everton will be aiming to get back to winning face after back to back defeats when they travel to the West Midlands to take on Wolves at Molineux.

After losing once in their opening seven Premier League fixtures, Rafael Benitez’s side have lost back-to-back matches against West Ham United and Watford.

Last weekend’s extraordinary 5-2 defeat to the Hornets saw Everton concede four times in the final 12 minutes as former striker Josh King fired in a hat-trick to cancel out earlier goals from Tom Davies and Richarlison.

If Everton were to lose in the West Midlands, it would be the first time the Toffees have lost three consecutive matches since October/November 2020 when they were beaten by Southampton, Newcastle United and Manchester United under Carlo Ancelotti.

Wolves, on the other hand, have been in impressive form as of late, picking up 10 points from their last four matches with only Chelsea picking up more points prior to this weekend.

Despite losing his first three league matches as manager, Bruno Lage’s attacking style of football has started to win matches and bring optimism to the stands of Molineux.

Summer signing Hwang Hee-Chan has quickly made himself a fans favourite after scoring four goals in six league appearances. The on-loan striker put Wolves 1-0 up at Leeds United last time out, however, a last-minute Rodrigo penalty meant Lage’s side had to settle for a point.

When the sides met last season, Everton completed the double over Wolves. The Toffees are looking to record a third consecutive league victory over the West Midlands outfit for the first time since a run of eight between 1964 and 1970.

Team News

Everton make the trip to the West Midlands without a number of first-choice starters. Dominic Calvert-Lewin (quadriceps) will miss an eighth consecutive game, whilst Yerry Mina (hamstring) and Abdoulaye Doucoure (toe) also miss out.

Andre Gomes (calf), Fabian Delph (shoulder) and Cenk Tosun (knee) have all been pictured in training this week with Benitez revealing in his press conference some players will be medically assessed ahead of Monday.

For Wolves, Lage revealed that Willy Boly is available to make his first Premier League appearance of the season. The defender missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury, although his absence last time out was illness-related.

Wolves will be without Marcal (calf) for a second consecutive match, whilst knee injuries keep Pedro Neto and Johnny Otto sidelined.

Set-piece Strugglers vs Specialists

One area of concern for Benitez is the number of goals his side are conceding from set-pieces. Everton have already let five in from dead ball situations which is two less than their total from the last campaign.

Angelo Ogbonna’s header from a corner gave West Ham all three points at Goodison Park a fortnight ago, and despite Benitez confirming Everton had worked on set pieces a day before their defeat to Watford, the Toffees conceded twice from crosses into the box.

“Trust me, [before Watford] we were working hard on the set pieces and corners to adjust things,” said Rafa Benitez.

“Still we conceded, so now we need to think about how we can improve and give the players the same belief and confidence they had at the beginning of the season.”

On the other hand, Wolves are yet to concede from a set-piece this campaign.

The arrival of Bruno Lage from Benfica saw the arrival of a new set-piece coach. Tony Roberts, who worked with Lage at Swansea City whilst he was assistant to Carlos Carvalhal, has been a positive recruitment choice by the Portuguese manager.

The set-piece specialist has made an instant impact since arriving, transforming a side who conceded the second-highest goals from set-pieces (13) last season, to one that is yet to concede from one this season.

Roberts, who is also Wales’ goalkeeping coach, revealed in an interview with The Athletic how he got to work on solving the problem.

“We looked at how goals were being conceded last year and to see if there were certain things; were they inswingers, outswingers? Short corners? Were they zonal, man-to-man?

“Then we worked on it in pre-season, tried zonal and man-to-man. It’s trial and error.”

Richarlison Return

Despite Everton’s injury woes, a first start in six games could be on the cards for Richarlison who came off the bench last weekend to score against his former club.

The Brazilian has been out since September recovering from a knee injury sustained following a heavy challenge from James Tarkowski in the Toffees’ 3-1 win over Burnley.

Richarlison has an impressive record against Wolves, scoring five times in six appearances. The forward netted twice on his Everton debut at Molineux three seasons ago as well as scoring a header in the Toffees’ 1-0 victory against Wolves the last time the sides met.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns] [column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”59″ heading=”EPL” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column] [column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1072″ heading=”News” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column] [/columns]