It's Brentford vs Everton in the Premier League today
It's Brentford vs Everton in the Premier League today
Welcome to our live coverage of Everton's crucial Premier League clash at Brentford in the Premier League. Kick-off is 3pm.
Victory for either side would move them above Chelsea into sixth place and level on points with fifth-placed Liverpool, who occupy the final Champions League spot. The stakes, then, are high.
Sixth-placed Brentford won 4-2 at Hill Dickinson Stadium in the reverse encounter in December. Back then seventh-placed Everton's injuries and availabilities were beginning to bite.
But they will travel to west London with virtually a full fit squad to choose from with Carlos Alcaraz and Jack Grealish their only confirmed absentees.
So can the Blues pull off an eighth away win of the season and push themselves firmly into the Champions League qualification reckoning?
Joe Thomas and Chris Beesley are at the Gtech Community Stadium to find out. They will bring you all the build-up to kick-off, including team news when it drops at 1.45pm, followed by an in-game commentary stream and the best post-match reaction and analysis.
Alternatives options to follow the contest can be found HERE.
Everton manager David Moyes was taken aback slightly at Friday's press conference when it was put to him that his side could qualify for the Champions League.
But he soon responded with a brilliant quote:
Look, Europe - if you had said Europe, any competition, if it was the tiddlywinks European competition we got in, we’d be excited about it because Evertonians know we want to get back in amongst it, we want to start getting talked about again.We have got a lot of good things going on now, the stadium, we’ve got one or two England international players who are getting talked about through the media more, so I hope that we can keep it going and if we can [get into the Champions League] it will be a brilliant achievement. But whatever competition we make, I would still see it as a real positive.
As we always do before Everton matches, we get our Blues writers Joe Thomas and Chris Beesley to do David Moyes' job for him and select their preferred starting line-ups.
They don't confer but they are very much on the same page today. They make one change to the team that humbled Chelsea last time out.
See their selections HERE.
Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton
Jarrad Branthwaite will be pushing for a starting place today(Image: Ryan Jenkinson/Everton FC Official Photography Library/SmartFrame)
And welcome to our live Brentford v Everton match blog.
This is a big one, isn't it?
There'll still be six games left to play after it, but you get the feeling if one side can win, it would do wonders for the confidence... and give Chelsea and Liverpool a big fright.
That's because if Brentford or Everton secure victory then that would move them above Chelsea, who host title-challenging Manchester City tomorrow, into sixth and level on points with fifth-placed Liverpool, who are clinging on to the final Champions League qualification spot and who face a testing encounter at home to Fulham later today.
Let's just hope it's the Blues who come out on top.