Sunday Times

Toffees hoping to continue good run against Chelsea

-

Picture: Gallo Images ● Everton can transform their season by winning during a packed Christmas period in the English Premier League.

The Toffees’ have climbed out of the bottom half of the league and into ninth position with three wins and a draw in four games since Sam Allardyce was appointed manager this month.

Everton will play four league games and an FA Cup fixture against Liverpool over the next two weeks.

Everton midfielder and Iceland internatio­nal Gylfi Sigurdsson has backed the team to continue its revival during a tough period.

“It was a very tough and slow start to the season but at the moment things are looking a lot better. We still need to improve on a few things to keep the momentum going heading into this busy Christmas period,” Sigurdsson told the club’s website.

“A few good results change everything in this league and now we’re looking forward to a lot of games over Christmas and we can turn this season completely around.”

Everton host Chelsea at Goodison Park on Saturday and Sigurdsson called for a good performanc­e against the champions.

“Chelsea are a very good team and we’re going to have to perform really well and make sure we take our chances as defensivel­y they are very good and not too bad going forward, either,” the 28-year-old added.

“It’s going to be a tough game but over the past few weeks we’ve been getting good results so we’d like to build on that.”

Bournemout­h coach Eddie Howe was left concerned after striker Jermain Defoe and midfielder Harry Arter joined the growing injury list during Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in a League Cup quarterfin­al.

England internatio­nal Defoe was forced off with an ankle injury by a mistimed tackle from Chelsea’s Ethan Ampadu early on and Arter was substitute­d with a calf problem.

The duo join several players, including Joshua King, Charlie Daniels and Tyrone Mings on the sidelines for Bournemout­h and Howe is worried about his depleted squad ahead of a packed festive schedule.

Howe said: “It was a nasty tackle. He went over on his ankle, he wasn’t right, he had to come off. But it meant we lost Jermain and that is going to be a huge blow to us.

“Harry Arter felt his calf and had to come off so we really are stretched. We have a number of players who are injured so we hope none of them are too serious.”

Bournemout­h are 16th in the Premier League and play four matches in 10 days, starting with Saturday’s trip to leaders Manchester City and ending with a New Year’s Day clash at Brighton.

 ??  ?? Ayrton Sweeney is likely to be one of SA’s medal contenders.
Ayrton Sweeney is likely to be one of SA’s medal contenders.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa