Wolverhampton Wanderers will be looking to stretch their unbeaten run in the Premier League to five matches when they welcome an out-of-form Everton side to Molineux on Monday night.
The home side are currently 11th in the table, having picked up 13 points from their first nine matches, while Everton are eighth with 14 points to show from their opening nine games.
Match preview
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Wolves lost their opening three Premier League matches of the 2021-22 campaign without scoring a goal, while they only managed to pick up three points from their first five games, which brought some early pressure on new head coach Bruno Lage.
The former Championship winners have been in excellent form since the end of September, though, picking up 10 points from their last four matches, which has seen them rise up the table into 11th position.
Wolves beat Southampton in their final match of September before recording back-to-back wins over Newcastle United and Aston Villa either side of the October international break.
Lage's team were on course to make it four straight successes against Leeds United at Elland Road last weekend, with Hwang Hee-chan's 10th-minute goal looking to be the difference between the two sides, only for Rodrigo to level the scores from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of added time at the end of the 90.
Wolves have only won one of their last six home Premier League games against Everton, and the Toffees recorded a 2-1 victory at Molineux in the corresponding clash last term.
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Everton, meanwhile, will enter Monday's contest off the back of a 5-2 home defeat to Watford last weekend; the Toffees twice led at Goodison Park through Tom Davies and then Richarlison but incredibly conceded four times in the final 12 minutes to suffer one of the standout losses of the season.
The Merseyside giants were also beaten 1-0 at home by West Ham United on October 17, which followed a 1-1 draw at Manchester United, so Rafael Benitez's side have not been victorious in England's top flight since a 2-0 home success over Norwich City at the end of September.
A record of four wins, two draws and three defeats from nine matches has left Everton in eighth position in the table, although they could have dropped a few places by the time that this game kicks off.
The Toffees will be wary of suffering another defeat on Monday ahead of two difficult matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City either side of the international break.
Everton have actually won three of their last four Premier League games against Wolves, including both meetings between the two sides last term, but they lost 3-0 at Molineux in July 2020.
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Team News
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Wolves boss Lage revealed during Friday's press conference that Willy Boly has recovered from illness, but Fernando Marcal will miss the contest due to a calf problem.
The home side will also again be without the services of Jonny, Pedro Neto, Yerson Mosquera and Hugo Bueno for the contest with Benitez's team.
Ruben Neves could return to the starting XI on Monday evening, potentially replacing Leander Dendoncker, but there are unlikely to be any alterations in the final third of the field, with Hee-chan set to continue alongside Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez in a front three.
As for Everton, Benitez has confirmed that Richarlison is in contention to start, having made a goalscoring return from injury off the bench against Watford last time out.
Fabian Delph is back training with the Toffees following a shoulder problem, but Abdoulaye Doucoure, Yerry Mina, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Andre Gomes will all be absent on Monday.
Benitez is expected to resist the temptation to make wholesale changes from the loss to Watford, but Richarlison should come into the side at centre-forward, while Alex Iwobi and Mason Holgate could also feature in the XI.
Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Sa; Kilman, Coady, Saiss; Semedo, Neves, Moutinho, Ait Nouri; Traore, Jimenez, Hwang
Everton possible starting lineup:
Pickford; Holgate, Keane, Godfrey, Digne; Townsend, Davies, Allan, Iwobi; Gray; Richarlison
We say: Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Everton
This has all of the makings of an open and entertaining game at Molineux; Richarlison's return is a huge positive for Everton, who will fancy their chances of carrying an attacking threat here, but Wolves are also dangerous in the final third, and we can see the two teams playing out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Top tip
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 Wolverhampton Wanderers win with a probability of 43.33%. A draw had a probability of 28.8% and a win for Everton had a probability of 27.86%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wolverhampton Wanderers win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.03%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (8.74%) and 2-1 (8.19%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (13.16%), while for a Everton win it was 0-1 (10.57%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with an 8.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Wolverhampton Wanderers would win this match.
