Date: Monday, September 30 Venue: Goodison Park Kick-Off: 20:00 Can Everton retain their status as the Premier League's only unbeaten side when they play host to Newcastle United tonight?
Team News
Gareth Barry is expected to make his 500th Premier League appearance when Everton play host to Newcastle United tonight. Meanwhile, midfield colleague Darren Gibson is pushing for his first start of the season after overcoming a knee injury. Newcastle manager Alan Pardew will hand recalls to Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Loic Remy after the trio were rested in the Capital One Cup last week. Steven Taylor and Shola Ameobi are both in contention, but Jonas Gutierrez is not likely to feature as he is still struggling to overcome a hamstring injury. (BBC)
Key Stats
Everton have lost only once in 10 previous meetings against Newcastle United at Goodison Park. These two clubs first met 115 years ago, with Everton winning the first ever meeting 3-0. The Magpies have only managed 16 points from their last 22 away games (W3, D7, L12). The Toffees are the only remaining undefeated side in the Premier League.
Everton play host to Newcastle United tonight as the surprise "form team" in the Premier League as the topflight's only undefeated side. The Toffee's haven't conceded a goal on home soil since Robson Kanu scored for Reading back in March and haven't lost a game this calendar year, a run of 11 matches. That's the size of the task awaiting Newcastle this evening as Alan Pardew takes his Magpies to a ground where they have only once tasted success in 10 previous attempts. It was three years ago that the Toon won this fixture, when Hatem Ben Arfa got his name on the scoresheet and Pardew had just replaced Chris Hughton as manager. The North East club go into this clash with a relatively poor away record, too, having only managed 16 points from their last 22 away games, losing 12 of them. It's difficult to envisage anything less than another home victory, and one that would propel Everton to fourth in the table. Everton 2-1 Newcastle
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
