Everton boss David Moyes. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)placeholder image
Everton boss David Moyes. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Everton have two key fixtures that could shape their season this week with two players walking a suspension tightrope against Bournemouth.
Defeat to Newcastle United at home will be a sore one to take, even if Eddie Howe has the sort of squad that allows for rotation. The Toffees have one of the smallest squads in the Premier League which means that injuries and suspensions can be painful, which is exactly what they found out at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. The injury list is improving but the absence of Idrissa Gueye has been felt already with Tim Iroegbunam being culpable at two of Newcastle’s goals before being substituted at half-time.
Everton players face suspension threat against Bournemouth
Despite the abject performance that left Moyes frustrated, he won’t want to lose the former Aston Villa midfielder too, but he will be walking a tightrope alongside another key member of Everton’s current starting XI. There are two players walking a suspension tightrope ahead of what could be a pivotal fixture against Nottingham Forest at the weekend with the Premier League’s guidance on suspensions explaining why:
Accumulating five, ten, fifteen or twenty yellow cards in league matches will result in an automatic ban per Premier League rules. Accumulated yellow cards in cup competitions are treated separately and can result in an automatic ban from the cup competition in which the yellow cards were received.
At the moment, Iroegbunam and James Garner are both sitting on four yellow cards, one more, and they will miss a game. Unless, as per the same regulations, they can make it to after the 19th game whereby that threshold will increase to 10 yellow cards.
Given Gueye’s suspension and injuries to Seamus Coleman and Nathan Patterson, numbers are short on the ground in midfield and at right-back. Forest have just one player who this applies to with Neco Williams one card away from missing the trip to Liverpool and taking part in Sean Dyche’s return to Merseyside.
What Moyes has said about Everton injuries
Speaking as part of his pre-match press conference, Moyes is hopeful that his side can rediscover the form of the previous two games whilst also providing an injury update.
"We're looking okay," said the Blues boss via Everton’s official website. "But we went into Newcastle carrying a couple of boys with injuries from the game in midweek. They played. Possibly, on another day, if we'd have had other players available, we might have altered that. But no excuses from that point of view.
"We had a brilliant win on Monday night [at Manchester United]. We probably went into Saturday still carrying a bit into the game, as well. We were still carrying a couple of small injuries."
On his four injured players, Moyes added: "None of them are available for the game. We're missing Merlin at the moment, the extra midfield player. Seamus would have given us extra cover at right-back and, with Jarrad out, we're limited at what we have available at centre-back as well."
Three points, and Moyes can start looking up the table and the European places, defeat, and the visit of Forest becomes the proverbial six-pointer.
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