Two teams that suffered contrasting fortunes on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season will face off at Goodison Park on Saturday when Everton host West Bromwich Albion.
Carlo Ancelotti's side kicked off their campaign with an impressive 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur, whereas the newly-promoted Baggies were soundly beaten at home to Leicester City.
Match preview
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For a number of years now, pre-season talk surrounding Everton has usually been regarding the subject of a possible top-six finish - something they have not gone on to achieve since the 2013-14 campaign.
However, last weekend's win at Spurs - their first away to one of the 'big six' since December 2013 - felt like a statement of their credentials this time around, with a world-class manager at the helm and a world star in James Rodriguez headlining some exciting summer business.
Ancelotti threw all of his debutants in from the start against Tottenham and they all impressed, even if it was the more familiar faces of Lucas Digne and Dominic Calvert-Lewin who provided the assist and finish respectively for the only goal of the game.
On paper, the trip to North London looks like Everton's biggest test until they host champions Liverpool in the Merseyside derby on October 17, so there is every reason to be optimistic of a strong start to the campaign.
The Toffees made it two wins and two clean sheets from two games across all competitions with a 3-0 triumph over Salford City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday night too, setting up a third-round clash at Fleetwood Town next week.
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West Brom were also 3-0 winners over League Two opposition in midweek as they eased past Harrogate Town at the Hawthorns, but their Premier League season got off to a much less successful start.
Slaven Bilic's side were on the other end of a 3-0 scoreline on the opening weekend as they shipped three second-half goals to lose to Leicester at home - a result which leaves them bottom of the table after matchday one.
Of course, Bilic will stress to his side that Leicester were one of the best teams in the division last season and that their league standing after gameweek one does not mean anything, but it is still a position no team wants to be in.
Saturday's trip to Goodison is the Baggies' only away assignment from five games in September and they will no doubt hope to resurrect the form which saw them pick up a joint league-high number of points and lose a joint league-low number of games on the road in the Championship last season.
With Chelsea next up in the league after this match, any points on the board will be welcome for West Brom to get them off the mark as quickly as possible.
Everton Premier League form: W
Everton form (all competitions): WW
West Bromwich Albion Premier League form: L
West Bromwich Albion form (all competitions): LW
Team News
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Everton are facing something of a defensive shortage, with Michael Keane and Yerry Mina the only two centre-backs fit and available for Ancelotti at the moment.
Mason Holgate remains sidelined with a toe injury, and Jarrad Branthwaite picked up an ankle problem during the EFL Cup win over Salford on Wednesday.
Fabian Delph also remains sidelined for this match, while Cenk Tosun and Jean-Philippe Gbamin are longer-term absentees.
Everton made wholesale changes for the midweek cup win, but the first-teamers, including Rodriguez, are expected to return to the starting XI for this match.
Bilic - himself a former Everton defender - also made 10 changes to his side during the week, but should revert back to most of the team that started on the opening day of the league season.
Conor Townsend could be an exception to that having recovered from injury to face Harrogate, and he will be pushing to start ahead of Kieran Gibbs at left-back this weekend.
Kenneth Zohore is the Baggies' only remaining injury absentee and he is still not back in training after a calf problem.
Everton possible starting lineup:
Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Mina, Digne; Gomez, Allan, Doucoure; Rodriguez, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison
West Bromwich Albion possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; Furlong, Ajayi, Bartley, O'Shea, Townsend; Pereira, Sawyers, Livermore, Diangana; Robinson
We say: Everton 2-0 West Bromwich Albion
Everton looked good against an admittedly below-par Tottenham last weekend, and they are only likely to get better once the new signings settle in more.
West Brom, meanwhile, suffered a difficult first taste of life back in the top flight and we do not expect it to get much easier for them at Goodison.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:dataVideo prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
Barney Corkhill
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a West Bromwich Albion win with a probability of 46.14%. A win for Everton had a probability of 28.1% and a draw had a probability of 25.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a West Bromwich Albion win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.04%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.18%) and 0-2 (8.27%). The likeliest Everton win was 1-0 (8.18%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.25%). The actual scoreline of 5-2 was predicted with a 0.1% likelihood.
