Televised Premier League: Everton v Newcastle

English Football League / Richard Walker / 03 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

Two sides feeling very sorry for themselves at the moment clash on Sunday afternoon. But despite a poor start to their season, Everton still have a good enough squad and firepower up front to grab all three points against Newcastle, says Richard Walker.

Supporters of the two teams aside, this is one of those classic moments in televised fixture scheduling where you're drawn to watch, admittedly in a macabre sort of way, the relative ill-fortunes currently befalling these two sides.

Here we have hosts Everton - dominated by Liverpool last weekend and eased out of the UEFA Cup by Standard Liege in the week - taking on comedy club Newcastle United - Dennis Wise's mate in as temporary manager and a ground-swell of the feeling of injustice amongst the passionate pilgrims.

I'm sorry but you're not going to tell me that a 61-year-old Joe Kinnear, about as welcome on Tyneside as Niall Quinn or Roy Keane, is going to have engineered the footballing equivalent of a miracle in the space of seven days. Nope. As good as some of the Magpies' players are individually, they're completely bereft of any confidence. Blimey, Michael Owen's even doing television interviews telling anyone who'll listen that the players' confidence is shot. Now don't ignore him...

So despite their current mediocrity, Davie Moyes' team have enough resolve left in the tank and you should take them to win at Goodison Park at odds of [1.83]. The Draw [3.6] and an away win at [5.5] make up the Match Odds options for backers. And in case you're feeling [1.83] is a little prohibitive, how about [2.4]? They're the odds for Everton to be winning in the Half Time market. I expect Moyes' boys to come out all guns blazing after their UEFA Cup exit, looking for a swift kill against opposition ripe to be swiftly killed.

At something like [3.25] (Any Time goalscorer) or [6.5] (First Goalscorer), Everton main hitman Yakubu is an absolute must of an inclusion against a defence as porous as United. "Feed the Yak and he will score" cry the Gwladys Street faithful at Goodison...make sure you've also got your nose in the trough when he nets on Sunday afternoon.

Over 2.5 goals can be backed at around the [1.99] mark. Don't miss out here either. This is tempting stuff and I can see there being at least three, if not a few more, goals between these two teams. Unders rates a [1.94] option to support. Three-one to the Toffees is my idea of a Correct Score, and if you follow that you'll be rewarded with odds of roughly [18.0]. Three-nil might be worth including too, since the first option requires Newcastle to actually do something positive. Both scores, when I look, are in fact at very similar prices to support.

Show no mercy on the Mags - swoop in there like a vulture about to pick over a carcass! Their time will come...just not this weekend.