This Sunday, Wolves visit Goodison Park in both sides’ fourth league game of the season. Wolves will be hoping for their first league win of the campaign, following three consecutive draws. Meanwhile Everton will be hoping for a second league win, and to build on the four points already accumulated. Make sure to check out the Toffee TV YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d80dzaXZcic

Everton will be hoping to build on the promising attacking display during the 4-2 win against Lincoln in midweek, with the likes of Alex Iwobi and Moise Kean adding more dynamism and creativity in forward areas.

Wolves are one of the only teams in the league who are yet to win a game, and have drawn against all three of their opponents. Beginning the season away at Leicester, they earned a 0-0 result in a game which Leicester tallied sixteen shots to Wolves’s eight, as well as 70% possession to Wolves’s 30%.

The following week, Wolves drew 1-1 at home to Man United, with a Paul Pogba penalty miss taking the headlines from this fixture. Man United led for over half an hour in this game, before Ruben Neves equalised with a ‘goal of the month’ contender. Again however, Wolves had the minority of possession with 64%, as well as less shots.

In their most recent fixture, Wolves drew 1-1 at home to Burnley , in a game in which Wolves dominated possession despite having just two shots on target from seventeen attempts. Despite having lots of the ball, Wolves trailed from the 13^th minute onwards until Raul Jimenez equalised through a penalty in the 97^th minute. A few days prior to this game, Wolves had beaten Torino 3-2 away in a Europa League play-off. Likewise, all of Wolves’s league games so far have come a few days after Europa League ties, and this may have contributed to Wolves being yet to win a league game.

Similarly, this Thursday Wolves beat Torino 2-1 and this could potentially affect their performance on Sunday.

Being away against a side like Everton, it’s likely that Wolves will concede the majority of possession and defend with their five-man defence setup. Everton will have to be more inventive when going forward, and shouldn’t just rely on crosses in to the box like they seemingly have so far in the league. With three centre-backs, Wolves should find it straight-forward to defend against crosses from the likes of Coleman and Digne. Having said this, there should be space out wide, with Wolves playing with just one wide player on each wing, and so Everton may look to utilise the overlapping full-backs.

Once winning the ball, Wolves could cause Everton problems when the capable passers of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho switch the ball up to the two strikers, Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez. The counter-attacking style will be effective if Everton commit too many players going forward (similar to what we saw during the Villa game).

Everton need more creativity centrally, and to be less predictable. The likes of Iwobi and Kean could provide the much-needed pace, creativity, and goals. We saw glimpses of what they could do against Lincoln, with Iwobi particularly impressing. If these two start the game, we should see a more innovative and dangerous Everton attack during what will be a tricky game.

Score prediction: Everton 2-1 Wolves

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BILLY MINSHALL