Joe Roberts

Thu 17 August 2023 10:01, UK

Dominic Calvert-Lewin could make his first appearance of the season for Everton away against Aston Villa with Neal Maupay dropped to the bench at Villa Park.

The Toffees look to get their first points of the season following their 1-0 loss to Fulham on the opening day and will need firepower up top, meaning the ineffective Maupay will make way for proven goalscorer Calvert-Lewin.

The Toffees face no new injuries against Villa, but still remain without winger Dwight McNeil, who Sean Dyche confirmed last week would be absent for “weeks rather than days.” Seamus Coleman and Dele Alli still remain unavailable.

The Liverpool Echo reported (17 August) that Calvert-Lewin has completed 90 sessions behind closed doors in his bid to get back to full match fitness and could be in contention to start for Dyche. With a lack of goals so far at Goodison Park, we have tipped the 26-year-old to start.

New signing Arnaut Danjuma replaced Maupay during the second half of the Fulham clash but showed enough in his 18-minute cameo to warrant his first start for Everton this weekend.

On this basis, we have predicted a mostly unchanged lineup from Everton’s opening-day defeat with the exception of Calvert-Lewin and Danjuma replacing the less-effective Maupay and James Garner.

Pickford naturally remains in goal. Despite conceding an in-the-box Bobby Decordova-Reid strike in the second half, he did not have much to do across the 90 minutes and only had to make a single save [Premier League].

Another sacrifice in the starting lineup is James Tarkowski who we predict will depart for Ben Godfrey, who will partner Michael Keane.

The 30-year-old was beaten for pace against Fulham, which helped allow them the only goal of the match. Up against the likes of Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins, we’ve picked the more speedy Godfrey to help nullify the rapid Villa attack.

The full-backs remain unchanged. With debutant Ashley Young giving a measured and professional performance last week, we tip him to do it again against his former side, while young Nathan Patterson keeps his spot too.

The midfield too remains unchanged. Despite losing, Everton created many chances against Fulham and much of this was thanks to the dynamic midfield combo. Abdoulaye Doucoure produced three progressive carries and three progressive passes last week [FBRef] and helped massively in the Toffees’ attacking moves.

Idrissa Gana Gueye meanwhile made a combined seven tackles and interceptions against Fulham [FBRef] and his solidity at the base of the midfield will be needed against the creative Villa midfield who will look for a convincing win following their 5-1 drumming against Newcastle in their opening day.

Alex Iwobi had an excellent game against Fulham and more than deserves to remain in the starting XI. His dribbling caused the backline many issues, but against Villa, he will hope to be more clinical with his chances after taking four shots last weekend with no reward [Premier League].

Sean Dyche will hope that an attacking trio of Iwobi, Danjuma and Calvert-Lewin will produce goals this Sunday. While unproven at this point, the three have the potential to form a lethal frontline for the Toffees this season and Dyche will hope they can hit the ground running.

In other Everton news, the Toffees’ highly-sought after forward’s destination for this season has been decided.