Everton v Sunderland
15:00 - 25/2/2017 - Goodison Park, Liverpoool
Everton will have been frustrated by their failure to score at the Riverside last time out in the league, but their unbeaten run now stands at five games, and they will expect to extend that to six against last-placed Sunderland. The Black Cats’ excellent victory at Crystal Palace was followed by a crushing 4-0 home defeat to Southampton, and they will struggle to secure a second successive away win against a team that has won three of its last four at home.
Sunderland’s record this season against teams between fifth and ninth is very poor. They’ve lost all five games against such opposition, going behind before the half in the two most recent of those and failing to get on the scoresheet on three of the five occasions. Their squad remains horribly understaffed despite a week’s respite, and they will miss Papy Djilobodji as he serves the last game of his four-game ban. Everton are undefeated in their last six against bottom-six sides and have won five of their last eight against such teams by at least two – given how excellent they looked against Bournemouth recently, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them romp home again.
Everton look set to overrun a struggling Sunderland side, who will be hard pressed to take points away from a side much stronger than Crystal Palace. We’ll back Everton to cover the -1 handicap.
