Ashley Young starts, Arnaut Danjuma on the bench – Confirmed Everton XI v Fulham in Premier League opener
Sean Dyche has named one debutant in his first Everton team of the Premier League season to take on Fulham, the club have announced.
Summer signing Ashley Young starts the game, while Arnaut Danjuma is only deemed fit enough for the substitutes bench ahead of his Goodison debut. James Tarkowski continues to captain the side in central defence alongside Michael Keane.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is not involved in the squad at all, alongside fellow summer signing Youssef Chermiti, but Demarai Gray is nowhere to be seen as speculation continues about his future.
Andre Gomes is named on the bench alongside academy graduates Jarrad Branthwaite, Tyler Onyango and Lewis Dobbin.
Strong
The team is pretty much what most Everton fans were expecting to see at 2pm today, although there was some hope that Calvert-Lewin would be fit and ready to go.
But his absence shows that the squad is still far from ready to go into this season, and that we’re still desperate for attacking reinforcements before the transfer window slams shut.
Neal Maupay just simply isn’t good enough for this level, Tom Cannon would be better off getting a loan in the Championship and Chermiti is arguably more unproven than all of them.
While Danjuma’s goal record is good he is a natural winger and with the way Dyche likes to play, he doesn’t fit that physical profile and is unlikely to be a big hit without someone alongside him as a more traditional number 9.
It’s something to think about for sure, but the team looks strong and against a Fulham side who have had their own problems this summer we should be looking to claim all three points today.
In other Everton news, Paul Merson makes “massive” relegation prediction live on Sky Sports.