One of the mouth watering prospects in store for football fans, when the Premier League returns after an International break, is a Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool.
Goodison Park will be the venue of a lunch-time kick off on Sunday in what promises to be an explosive match between two sides looking to prove themselves, after indifferent starts to their Premiership campaigns.
Coincidentally, both teams languishing near the bottom of the table, have six points each after seven matches. With new ownership looming for the Reds, Roy Hodgson will be keen to underline his managerial skills with a win. Especially after fans chanted for his removal in the Reds’ 2-1 home loss to Blackpool.
In some bad news for Liverpool (other than the off-field wrangles at Anfield), Dirk Kuyt is sidelined ahead of Sunday’s game, owing to an injury sustained by the striker in Holland’s Euro qualifier with Sweden on Tuesday, a match that the Dutch won convincingly. It could be a month before Kuyt returns to action.
But Hodgson will take cheer from Torres’ return to the team after the Spanish striker showed signs of recovery from an abductor strain.
Steven Gerrard, as ever, will the key man, and Hodgson will look for an inspired performance from the England midfielder in what is a must-win for the Anfield squad.
Everton on their part have injury worries too, with the sidelining of Victor Anichebe, Steven Pienaar, Louis Saha and Jack Rodwell. Manager David Moyes will hope that home advantage inspires the Blues to bank three points from the game, and move up the points table.
The Toffees will look to Tim Cahill to provide the momentum, even as the Reds are set to miss the services of Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio and Paul Konchesky due to injury.
The following players were in Everton starting eleven in their 2-0 win against Birmingham, on October 2: Tim Howard, Phil Neville, Sylvain Distin, Philip Jagielka, Leighton Baines, Seamus Coleman, Marouane Fellaini, Mikel Arteta, Leon Osman, Tim Cahill, Yakubu.
The substitutes for the match were: Barkley, Jermaine Bedford, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, John Heitinga, Magaye Gueye, Tony Hibbert, Jan Mucha.
Liverpool included the following players in their last league match against Blackpool, a match that the Reds lost 2-1: Jose Manuel (Pepe) Reina, Glen Johnson, Sotiros Kyrgiakos, Martin Skrtel, Jamie Carragher, Christian Poulsen, Raul Meireles, Dirk Kuyt, Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, Fernando Torres.
The substitutes were: Milan Jovanovic, Lucas, David Ngog, Jay Spearing, Martin Kelly, Maxi Rodriguez, Brad Jones.
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