Everton make the short trip to Fleetwood Town in the EFL Cup third round on Wednesday evening as they bid to record their fourth successive win in all competitions.
Meanwhile, Fleetwood suffered their first defeat in five at the weekend after they lost out to Peterborough United in League One.
Match preview
© Reuters
On the back of an uninspiring end to the last campaign, Carlo Ancelotti had little choice but to make a number of changes to his Everton squad over the past few weeks.
However, the Italian will have been pleasantly surprised with how his new-look squad have started the season, especially when the centre of the backline remains an issue.
Three successive wins in all competitions, the latest one being a 5-2 win over West Bromwich Albion, have left everyone associated with the Toffees feeling optimistic that they can mount a bid for European qualification and silverware.
That level of ambition is dependent on whether another experienced defender arrives at Goodison Park, but the additions further up the pitch have given the Merseyside outfit an extra edge.
Although James Rodriguez and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have found themselves in the headlines, the blossoming partnership of Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure will prove just as important as the season progresses.
Fleetwood have endured a hectic start to the season, already participating in five matches in three competitions since September 1.
They were well on course for a fifth successive win at the weekend when leading Peterborough United heading into the added-on time, only for their hosts to dramatically score twice during five extra minutes.
The manner of that setback has the potential to derail Joey Barton's side, something which may lead to the former midfielder playing more of his first-teamers than he had initially planned.
Nevertheless, Barton will not want to lose sight of this being an opportunity to pull off one of the biggest victories in the history of the club.
Fleetwood Town EFL Cup form: WW
Fleetwood Town form (all competitions): WWWWL
Everton EFL Cup form: W
Everton form (all competitions): WWW
Team News
© Reuters
Ancelotti is likely to take the same approach to this game as he did for the fixture against Salford last week.
That should see nine changes being made to his team, with only Yerry Mina and Michael Keane remaining in the starting lineup.
Alex Iwobi is in contention for a starting role after featuring off the substitutes' bench versus the League Two outfit.
Given the manner of Fleetwood's defeat against Peterborough, it would not come as a surprise if Barton retained the same starting lineup.
Paddy Madden, Jay Matete and Harvey Saunders appear to have the best chance of being drafted into the first XI.
Fleetwood Town possible starting lineup:
Cairns; Burns, Hill, Stubbs, Andrew; Coutts, Whelan; Morris, Camps, Duffy; Evans
Everton possible starting lineup:
Virginia; Kenny, Mina, Keane, Nkounkou; Davies, Sigurdsson; Walcott, Bernard, Gordon; Kean
We say: Fleetwood Town 1-3 Everton Town
Although Ancelotti will be prioritising the meeting with Crystal Palace at the weekend, the Italian will want to progress as far as possible in this competition. Regardless of the amount of alterations, the visitors should have enough to progress with relative ease.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:curl
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Everton win with a probability of 39.07%. A win for Fleetwood Town had a probability of 35.27% and a draw had a probability of 25.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Everton win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.2%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.53%) and 0-2 (6.46%). The likeliest Fleetwood Town win was 1-0 (8.65%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.15%). The actual scoreline of 2-5 was predicted with a 0.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Everton would win this match.
