Everton take on Chelsea on Saturday evening.
The Toffees suffered a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal last time out, so David Moyes’ will be keen for his side to bounce back with a win in this one.
Opta’s supercomputer has made Chelsea the favourites to beat Everton, which is quite surprising given the visitors’ form.
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Everton's predicted starting line-up against Chelsea.
Liam Rosenior’s men are going through a really tough patch at the moment, losing three games on the bounce.
With that said, Paul Merson has now issued his prediction for the Hill Dickinson Stadium clash.
Paul Merson.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Paul Merson predicts Everton to draw with Chelsea
Writing in his Sportskeeda column, Merson explained that he was impressed by Everton’s performance against Arsenal and expects them to hold Chelsea to a score draw.
“Everton will give Chelsea a tough test,” the 57-year-old stated.
“I remember them being good against Arsenal at the Emirates. If Chelsea can get three points here, it will be an unbelievable result, but I don’t expect that to happen.
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“I don’t expect any of the teams that are chasing Champions League qualification to win this weekend. If I had to pick three teams to finish behind Arsenal and Manchester City in the top five, my choices would be Manchester United, Liverpool and Aston Villa.
“I’m not backing Chelsea because their fixtures are atrocious. If Arsenal had Chelsea’s fixtures, the title race would have still been alive!”
Merson predicted: Everton 1-1 Chelsea
Interestingly, Everton haven’t had a score draw against Chelsea in a home Premier League fixture since May 1995. That’s quite a remarkable record.
That clash saw Joe Royle’s Toffees side draw 3-3, with Anders Limpar, Joe Parkinson and Paul Rideout on the scoresheet.
John Spencer scored a brace for the visitors and Glen Hoddle got one.
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