Everton V Wigan Athletic

English Premiership 2009/2010 – Game Week 4

Everton V Wigan Athletic

Kick-Off: Sunday 30^th August – 15:00 GMT

Venue: Goodison Park

Everton

League Position: 20^th

Recent Form: LL

After two straight defeats, Everton, currently bottom of the Premiership table, already find themselves having to acclimatise to life at the very foot of the table, although, David Moyes will be desperately hoping Everton’s rot will come to an end this weekend as Wigan Athletic pay his team from Merseyside a visit. Everton are a pretty short price to comply in this fixture and after two ‘shambolic’ performances, is anyone actually considering having a punt on Everton? Well, yes! Us, in fact.

Arsenal’s 6-0 drubbing of Everton on the opening day of the new season, at this very same venue – Goodison Park, was the worst possible start for Everton and they backed that nightmare result up with another spineless performance away at Burnley. Everton were extremely poor in both, with chances few and far for the ‘Toffees’. However, David Moyes and Everton have got it all off their chest this week, mainly in the form of Joeleon Lescott. The England international got his own way, what a surprise – a player getting his own way in football, and the centre-half secured a move to Eastlands earlier in the week. David Moyes has now offloaded the driftwood and he can now concentrate on working with the players he currently has at his disposal and possibly introduce some new fresh faces before the end of the transfer window with the funds he’s received in return.

Everton are still without injured duo; Mikel Arteta & Phil Jagielka, who are arguably two of Everton’s finest players at the club in this moment in time. However, they should have more than enough to bypass an ordinary looking Wigan side at home. Both Tim Cahill & Brazilian Jo have yet to register their first goal of the new Premiership campaign so they’ll be desperate to get on the score sheet on Sunday while Louis Saha may be forgiven for his penalty miss against Burnley and be paired alongside Jo up front for this clash with the ‘Latics’.

Wigan Athletic

League Position: 16th 

Recent Form: WLL

After Wigan’s opening day victory away at Aston Villa, many, including ourselves, were getting a bit too carried away with Wigan’s performance on the day. Their passing was crisp, their movement off the ball was sublime, while their ability to carve Villa open was extraordinary. However, we may have seen the very best of Wigan on the opening day but we’ve definitely seen the very worst of them ever since. Against Wolves, Wigan showed none of the qualities that seen them cruise past Aston Villa on the opening day and backing Wigan this season could be a case of Jackal & Hyde. If you’re lucky then you might just get the Wigan side that actually wants to play with a bit of vigour, however, more times then not, you’ll probably get the average Wigan side that simply refuses to play.

That defeat at home to Wolves, losing 1-0, appeared to open up a can of worms as Wigan then went on to receive a thrashing by Manchester United, at The JJB, the following game. The current champions of England put five second half goals past Wigan to secure a deserving 5-0 victory and compound the sorrows of the Wigan fans in a game Wigan rarely showed any intent of winning or making any real impression. The Wigan players failed to close any of the United players down, they allowed the opposition way too much time on the ball and, evidentially, went on to receive a hefty penalty in the way of a 5-0 hammering in front of the home fans.

Head-to-Head:

Everton W: 4 Wigan Athletic W: 2 Draws: 2

Wigan won the very first encounter, of four, at Goodison Park, back in 2005, but it’s Everton who’ve won the previous two meetings on Merseyside. Wigan’s last league visit to Everton ended in misery with the ‘Toffees’ easing to a 4-0 victory last season. Everton were one of the in-form sides then though but neither side heads into this fixture with any recent solid wins behind them.

Over 2.5 Goals – 4 Under 2.5 Goals – 4

Although the goal statistics appear to be even, at Goodison, three of the previous four clashes have finished Over 2.5 Goals. Wigan have also managed to score at Goodison in the three of their last four visits so the omens are good for an entertaining game.

Match Verdict: Everton to bounce back with a victory – 4/5 BlueSquare

Despite an appalling start, Everton get our nod of approval to comply at the third attempt. The sale of Joeleon Lescott is a huge burden lifted off the club as anyone who doesn’t want to fight for the cause simply shouldn’t be there. He was a bad apple affecting the whole bunch but Everton should be in a resurgent mood now. Wigan have looked pretty pathetic in their recent games and if they don’t up their game 100% then they could be in for a rough ride here.

Match Odds:

Everton – 4/5 BlueSquare

Wigan Athletic – 4/1 PaddyPower

Draw – 13/5 Bet365

SoccerBetting Tip: Jo FGS – 6/1 Coral