Five serious league games in a row now starting with Liverpool on Monday evening – Newcastle, Woolwich, Man United and Everton follow. With three of these fixtures away from home, what’s a serious target to come out of the end of this run with? We’re capable of winning all these games but how about ten points? Three wins and a draw? I’d take that personally.
Traditionally a trip to Anfield isn’t one of the games we’d look to get three points from, however last season’s comfortable 2-0 victory is still fresh in the mind as is the 4-0 win at WHL in September and coming out on top in this one is a realistic ambition. Liverpool’s resurgence this season has come despite some dodgy home form with only four wins in their eleven games so far. The other seven have been draws so whilst they’re unbeaten, Anfield is not the intimidating place of old.
Dalglish publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the team after their recent defeat at Bolton and they’ve responded with good performances in the cup and a thumping win at Wolves. Craig Bellamy has been the star of the show up front but the spotlight will shift on Monday as Luis Suarez returns to the fold after his ban. The chances of him having spent his gardening leave learning how to stay on his feet are slim I’d guess but as he’ll probably start on the bench, referee Michael Oliver won’t have to have to spend his time trying to discern fact from fiction for the full ninety minutes.
Injury news from our side isn’t the best with Lennon and Defoe seemingly definitely out and Van der Vaart struggling. Adebayor also came off with a twinge on Tuesday so a fully fit and raring to go Saha would be nice, a sentiment that’s been expressed more than a few times on Everton websites in the past few years I’d hazard.
The bookies make a home win firm favourite which shows that we’ll need to be at our best. One of the barnstorming starts we’ve seen so often this season would be welcome; Van der Vaart’s early goal last year was the cornerstone of our win. Bale carried our main attacking threat against Wigan but he can’t be expected to do it on his own this time round. It’s important that VdV starts and gets involved but Modric pulled the strings in our win last season and is in the form to do it again. COYS.
By MF
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