Everton vs Swansea City; Premier League
Everton vs Swansea City. Premier League.
Goodison ParkAttendance36,908.
Everton 1
- J Cork (26th minute own goal)
Swansea City 2
- G Sigurdsson (17th minute pen)
- A Ayew (34th minute)
Everton v Swansea City preview: Francesco Guidolin set for first game
Sunday 24 January 2016 16:51, UK
Francesco Guidolin will take charge of Swansea for the first time when they travel to Everton on Super Sunday.
The newly-appointed head coach will be in the Goodison Park dugout, alongside fellow coach Alan Curtis, as the pair try and seal back-to-back Premier League wins for the Swans for the first time this season.
Roberto Martinez, meanwhile, has had to fend off unrelenting transfer speculation about his squad ahead of hosting his former employers, with the Spaniard adamant no players will be allowed to leave in January.
"Nobody's going, none of our players who have been performing well will be leaving in January," he said. "That's the end of the matter. It's not a window where we bring instability to the club."
The Toffees will be out to bounce back from their controversial late draw at Chelsea last time out as well as ending a two-month run without a home league victory.
Team news
James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman have returned to training this week but may not be quite ready for Sunday's visit of Swansea.
McCarthy has played just once since late November because of a groin problem while Coleman has missed three matches with a calf injury.
Midfielder Tom Cleverley, an unused substitute at Chelsea last weekend, may get a run-out while there are no injury worries over Steven Pienaar or Bryan Oviedo.
Swansea are thought to have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to Merseyside and Guidolin could name the same side which beat Watford on Monday.
Opta stats
Everton and Swansea have met 21 times in the league, with the Toffees winning 13 and losing none.
Everton have failed to score in three of the last four meetings with Swansea in all competitions, while they only scored once in the other match during this run.
Swansea have scored just four goals in nine Premier League games against Everton, failing to score in six matches.
Roberto Martinez's side have won just three of their last 13 Premier League matches at Goodison Park (W3 D4 L6).
The Swans have won just one of their last 11 Premier League matches on the road (W1 D3 L7).
Swansea have scored just five goals in their last eight Premier League away matches and none of those have come in the first half of games.
Everton have scored with a league-high 19.5% of their shots so far in 2015-16.
Since November 28 2015, Everton have dropped a league-high 11 points from leading positions in nine Premier League games, six more than any other side.
Kevin Mirallas has scored three goals in his last five appearances for the Toffees in all competitions after netting just once in his previous 15 for the club.
Thirty-four-year-old midfielder Gareth Barry has run 261.6km in the Premier League this season - only Bournemouth's Andrew Surman has covered more ground in 2015-16 (266.0km).
Merson's prediction
The things you're going to get with Everton are that they score goals and concede goals. I don't think Swansea can hurt them though, and I think Everton will romp home. I feared for Swansea until they beat Watford on Monday, that was a big football game.
They're still very much in the relegation mix but it was a big three points nonetheless, dragging Watford down a bit. When you're at the bottom you want as many teams as possible down there with you. Despite that, I predict an easy Everton win with Romelu Lukaku to continue his fine goalscoring form.
PAUL PREDICTS: 4-0 (Sky Bet odds 28/1)