Everton kick-off April with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool
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Jake O'Brien celebrates scoring his team's first goal with teammate Jesper Lindstrom during the Premier League match between Everton FC and West Ham United FC at Goodison Park. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Jake O'Brien celebrates scoring his team's first goal with teammate Jesper Lindstrom during the Premier League match between Everton FC and West Ham United FC at Goodison Park. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Jake O’Brien believes his Everton side should take confidence from the fact they have already taken points off some of the teams they face in a daunting April. The Blues return to action on Wednesday, April 2, when they make the trip across Stanley Park to take on Liverpool.
Given the way the Goodison Park derby ended back in February, there is a growing expectation that more chaos could occur at Anfield. Following the game against Arne Slot's side, O'Brien and his team-mates then face Arsenal at home, Nottingham Forest away, Manchester City at Goodison and conclude the month with a trip to the capital to take on Chelsea.
However, the Blues have already picked up points against all those sides bar Forest so far this season, and O’Brien believes that while they are all tough games, there is no reason why his side can’t come away with positive results.
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He said: “It is a tough run of games, you can’t see past it, but I think we are more than good enough to nick results from it.
"We have come away with results against them in the past. I think they will be tough opponents, but we will train hard and hopefully come away with results.”
Everton are without a game this weekend due to the international break and are also without a game next weekend due to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup taking place.
O’Brien is one of a number of Blues stars who has linked up with his international side, but he believes the break, given that David Moyes was without Iliman Ndiaye, Orel Mangala, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dwight McNeil for the draw against West Ham United last time out, has come at the right time.
“I think it probably has come at a good time,” the Republic of Ireland defender admitted. “For a few weeks, our squad has been kind of light.
“I think today [against West Ham] we saw boys coming back Youssef (Chermiti) and (Armando) Broja. It is important we have these players back, that we have really good players come off the bench.
“It was down to them that we nicked a result today [against West Ham] because they were excellent when they came on.”