Sean Dyche has confirmed Everton will continue to be without three players for Saturday’s match with Manchester City – but is hopeful of one potential return.
City return to the Etihad Stadium for Saturday’s early kick-off following their 3-1 win over Brentford on Monday and will aim to stretch their winning run to eight matches in all competitions.
With Liverpool not kicking off their match with Burnley until 3pm, Pep Guardiola’s side would leapfrog them to go top with a victory over their Merseyside neighbours – for a little while at least.
City are huge favourites to pick up the three points over Everton and their chances have only gotten higher after Dyche, who is suspended from the touchline for the game, confirmed he still has a number of absentees.
Everton team news vs Manchester City
Dyche has confirmed that Arnaut Danjuma (ankle), Andre Gomes (calf) and Abdoulaye Doucoure (hamstring) all won’t be available for the trip to Manchester.
“Not Doucs, not Danjuma, not Andre Gomes – he won’t be back,” Dyche said in his pre-match press conference.
“On a better note, Youngy [Ashley Young] continues to get fully fit. Seamus [Coleman] would have had a full week’s training with the team, which is good.”
There was another positive for Everton, too, as Dyche revealed important midfielder Amadou Onana is in contention to return after two games out.
“Amadou has been back out on the grass, and we will pick the team accordingly,” he added.
“But better signs and progress from the injured plays, and Doucs is on the grass. Not with us [the squad] but he is making a good progress.”
Manchester City vs Everton prediction
Everton have shown some fighting spirit in recent weeks, coming back to salvage a last gasp draw with Tottenham last weekend being a great example.
But the early quality they displayed has seemingly faded away and they now haven’t won since December 16.
City had to come from behind but handily defeated the Toffees 3-1 at the end of 2023 and should be able to win without as much stress this time around now they’re hitting their stride.
