Everton - Fulham Preview

This is it. The home stretch. Only three more matches left in the season (Home against Fulham, at Stoke City, and home against Portsmouth). Portsmouth has officially been denied a chance to go to the Europa League (making it to the FA Cup finals), so the 7th place team in the Premier League will be allowed to go instead. Everton is currently in 8th place. The Toffees have not lost a home league game since November, but merely avoiding a loss will not be enough. A win is compulsory for the Toffees if 7th place is in their minds.

Fulham are playing for pride only at this point. They are not in contention for a European spot and are not close to the relegation battle. Fulham played midweek in the Europa League against Hamburg to a scoreless draw. Fulham's top scorer, Bobby Zamora, is also injured after aggravating his Achilles injury. This game is also Tim Cahill's 200th start for Everton. All these factors seem to make this game perfect for an Everton victory, but the Toffees can not become overconfident. Mark Schwarzer has been phenomenal at goal recently and could make goals difficult to come by for the Toffees. Everton also have a history of not winning the games they are supposed to.

In the end, I think Everton win this game 3-1. Fulham have had trouble to score, and losing Zamoro will not help. Everton has had a pretty good goal scoring run, and that should be the difference. I don't see Everton losing or drawing this important of a game at home.

Everton's Squad:

John Heitinga's hairline fracture on his ankle will definitely keep him against Fulham and most likely for the rest of the season.

Likely Starters: Howard, Jagielka, Hibbert, Distin, Baines, Bilyaletdinov, Neville, Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar, Saha

Bench players that could see minutes: Rodwell, Yakubu, Yobo, Senderos

Fulham's Squad: Schwarzer, Pantsil, Smalling, Hughes, Shorey, Duff, Murphy, Etuhu, Dempsey, Gera, Okaka