Everton vs West Brom 19/09/20

19 September 2020

Everton will be looking to maintain a winning start to the Premier League season when they take on newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion at Goodison Park this weekend.

Heavily reinforced during the summer transfer window, new-look Everton pulled off a tight 1-0 away win over Tottenham on Matchday 1 and went on to beat lower-league side Salford in the EFL Cup last time out. Notably, Goodison Park has been somewhat a stronghold this calendar year, as the hosts suffered just one defeat from nine Premier League home fixtures since the turn of 2020 (W3, D5, L1). Everton’s rock-solid defense has managed to restrict their opponents to a maximum of one goal per game on seven of those nine occasions! It should not be a problem for Carlo Ancelotti’s team to maintain that record here, as Everton have shut out WBA in four of their last seven top-flight H2Hs held at this stadium, conceding precisely once per game in the other three.

As for the visitors, they marked a Premier League return with a dismal 3-0 home loss to Leicester City on Matchday 1 but managed to bounce back to beat lower-league outfit Harrogate 3-0 in the EFL Cup at the midweek. WBA finished the 2019/20 Championship season as the division’s best away defense, though, conceding only 18 goals on an average of 0.78 goals per league road match. That’s the kind of statistic the ‘Baggies’ will be looking to dwell on ahead of their trip to the team they’ve shut out in three of their previous five Premier League H2Hs away from home. Slaven Bilic’s men showed how mentally strong they are, roaring their way back into the game in seven of 11 league trips in which they conceded the opener last season (W4, D3, L4).