PSV Eindhoven head into their contest with Emmen on Tuesday evening looking to keep the pressure on Ajax at the top of the Eredivisie standings.
Despite sitting eight points adrift of safety, Emmen play host to the title contenders on the back of a morale-boosting draw at ADO Den Haag.
Match preview
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After their slip up to AZ Alkmaar earlier this month, it was imperative that PSV responded with two victories against Sparta Rotterdam and RKC Waalwijk, regardless of their overall performance.
Roger Schmidt's side were far from convincing in either match, backing up a 5-3 thriller against Sparta with a 2-0 success over struggling Waalwijk.
Nevertheless, the results have kept the club in close proximity to the leaders and Vitesse, who are showing no signs of being also-rans in the title race.
Schmidt will be eager to see more from Donyell Malen in the final third, with the former Arsenal youngster having only scored in one of his last six matches.
Although his double proved to be decisive in the meeting with Sparta, the Netherlands international needs to recapture the form which increased speculation regarding an eventual return to the Premier League.
As far as Emmen are concerned, the bottom-placed side will have taken the positives from ending their four-match losing streak against ADO Den Haag.
However, only claiming a share of the spoils against one of their relegation rivals was not enough in the grand scheme of things, heaping the pressure on Dick Lukkien's team ahead of this contest.
While Lukkien will be realistic about his team's chances, he will at least want to see foundations laid for future games, particularly the weekend's showdown with Willem II.
Ending the week within one point of Willem will represent success, but Lukkien will remain hopeful that his players can deliver their standout performance of the season when welcoming PSV to De Oude Meerdijk.
Emmen Eredivisie form: DLLLLD
Emmen form (all competitions): LLLLLD
PSV Eindhoven Eredivisie form: WWDLWW
PSV Eindhoven form (all competitions): WDLWWW
Team News
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Having started the last game among the PSV replacements, Malen is expected to return in place of Noni Madueke.
The rest of the team could stay the same, with long-term absentee Marco van Ginkel remaining on the substitutes' bench after upping his game time against Waalwijk.
Barring any fitness issues, Lukkien is likely to stick with the side which earned a draw in their last outing.
Nikolai Laursen is an alternative to Robbert de Vos if Lukkien wants to introduce fresh legs into his attack.
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Telgenkamp; Bijl, Araujo, Bakker, Cavlan; Tibbling, Moussa; Vos, Pena, Frei; De Leeuw
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Mvogo; Dumfries, Teze, Baumgartl, Boscagli; Rosario, Junior; Thomas, Ihattaren; Malen, Zahavi
We say: Emmen 0-3 PSV Eindhoven
While PSV have been far from perfect in recent weeks, we expect the visitors to cruise to victory on Tuesday night. Even in keeping a rare clean sheet in their most recent encounter, Emmen will struggle to withstand the extra quality in the final third.
Top betting tip
Darren Plant
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 PSV Eindhoven win with a probability of 74.27%. A draw had a probability of 15.3% and a win for Emmen had a probability of 10.38%.
The most likely scoreline for a PSV Eindhoven win was 0-2 with a probability of 10.43%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.17%) and 0-3 (9.04%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.05%), while for a Emmen win it was 2-1 (3.1%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 10.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-2 win for PSV Eindhoven in this match.
