Conor Coady dropped for Michael Keane – Everton starting XI vs Arsenal
Sean Dyche’s confirmed Everton starting XI for the trip to face Arsenal at the Emirates has been confirmed by the club, with the new manager looking to secure a quick-fire double over the league-leaders.
On-loan Wolves defender Conor Coady has been dropped to the bench in favour of Michael Keane in the one change from the 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend.
Keane, who was with Dyche at Burnley, has only made one prior appearance in the Premier League this season, whereas Coady has been ever-present barring the game he was ineligible for against his parent club.
Otherwise it is ‘as you were’ with Jordan Pickford in goal and Seamus Coleman, James Tarkowski and Vitalii Mykolenko completing the back four.
Idrissa Gana Gueye, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Amadou Onana are the midfield three, with Alex Iwobi and Dwight McNeil out wide, while the under-fire Neal Maupay keeps his place up front.
Fight
On paper this says home win all day long but Dyche has already shown he can set up his side to match Arteta’s men with the massively important 1-0 win in his first game in charge.
As much as Everton are under pressure at one end of the table right now the Gunners are chasing a first title in two decades and know they have Manchester City breathing down their neck.
So, even if the attacking output of this Toffees side remains a weakness, if the defence and midfield can frustrate the home team for the best part of an hour the crowd could get restless.
Going behind early would be the absolute worst thing to happen in this game, with the dual issue of away form and goalscoring ability suggesting it would be a massively uphill battle to come back for a result.
But again, Demarai Gray scored a stunner to steal a point at the Etihad on 31 December so it is by no means impossible to get something from this game.
The atmosphere around the team switches from hopeful to nervous depending on the previous result at the moment, so on the back of the Aston Villa loss it would be very useful to get at least a point on the board here.