Prediction & odds for the game: Everton (7/10) v Burnley (4/1)

When: Thursday, 26th December 2019 @ 3pm K.O

Where: Goodison Park

Everton will begin a brand new era for the club on Boxing Day when they go toe to toe with Burnley.

Everton

Duncan Ferguson is out and Carlo Ancelotti is in as Everton Football Club attempts to rise up through the ranks of English football once again. One thing they need to do between now and around March is start the ball rolling with some kind of unbeaten run, whether it be a fluky draw or two or an emphatic win. If they don’t, we could be contemplating the very real possibility of them slipping down into the second tier by the time May is upon us.

Losses to Leicester City and Liverpool were to be expected, but they still served as the final nails in the coffin for Marco Silva. Given how tough their next few games looked a lot of fans were feeling pretty concerned, but they’ve done pretty well all in all. They beat Chelsea, they drew with Manchester United and Arsenal, and it took penalties for Leicester to beat them in the Carabao Cup.

Burnley

Sean Dyche continues to do a phenomenal job with Burnley, and we wouldn’t be all too surprised if they’re making a large surge for the top six in a few months time. Of course, establishing themselves in such a role requires a team of real quality, and in order to become that they need to go out and buy in a big way during the January transfer window. Whether or not they’ve got the sort of mainstream appeal to bring in some bigger names, though, remains to be seen.

A 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace was disappointing, but being battered by Tottenham and Manchester City is to be expected in some senses. Still, Burnley know how to shut teams out, and they did so by winning & gaining clean sheets against Watford, Newcastle and Bournemouth.

Conclusion

These two Northern sides are going to be taking chunks out of one another on Boxing Day which is exactly what we’d expect them to do. It’s going to be a baptism of fire for Ancelotti, and during the game, we’re particularly interested to see how he handles some of his substitutions. If he can get that right, and he can get this team playing some attractive football, then we think he’ll be able to pick up a much needed win here.

We’re perhaps optimistically choosing to believe that they’ll both be firing on all cylinders, too, leading to them reaching the over 2.5 goals target. We also think there will be some form of late drama, leading to limbs of some description from one of the two teams involved.

Verdict: Back the home win at odds of 7/10 and the over 2.5 goals scored at odds of 10/11. (All odds are taken from bet365).

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