It's The Battle of The Blues this Saturday at St Andrews as Alex McLeish's 8th placed Birmingham City take on the blues from Merseyside, who lie one place and two points below their hosts in the table.
Both sides go into this match on the back of a victory: McLeish's much-changed side winning 2-1 at Portsmouth on Tuesday thanks to a brace scored by Cameron Jerome and created by Choo-Choo Benitez, and David Moyes's team coming out emphatic 5-1 winners at home to struggling Hull City last Sunday, with back-to-form and fitness Spanish playmaker Mikael Arteta weighing in with two goals.
Prior to the Hull game, Everton's two previous home games had been even more impressive results, with victories against potential champions Chelsea (2-1) and Man Utd (3-1). Their recent away form however has been slightly less impressive with defeats at Spurs (1-2) and Liverpool (0-1) and a 1-0 win at Wigan in their last three away league games.
Overall Everton's away record this season shows just 3 wins and 3 draws, with 7 defeats. Of their 28 games played so far only 13 have been away from Goodison.
Blues' last three home league games include victories against lowly Wigan (1-0) and Wolves (2-1) and a last-gasp draw (1-1) against Spurs.
The first league meeting between the sides was on the Sunday before Christmas, when McLeish's side was in the middle of that long unbeaten run and were somewhat fortunate to leave Goodison with a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw. Bilyaletdinov score early (5m) and then the Toffees had a second from Saha incorrectly ruled out for 'offside' before Larsson played a 1-2 with Choo-Choo and went on to slot home midway through the first half.
After that game at Goodison there were 10 points and places separating the 2 sides, with Blues in 7th. Since then Blues have picked up 15 points from 10 games, while the Toffees have an even more impressive return of 23 points from 11 games, allowing them to come into contention with Blues for a place in the top 8, and an outside chance of qualifying for a place in next season's Europa League. Since the league game, of course, Blues have again travelled to Merseyside for an FA Cup clash in which McLeish's side acquitted themselves much better than in the earlier fixture, emerging with great credit from a well-deserved 2-1 victory.
Whilst Moyes has some of his injured players back following lengthy lay-offs, they have recently lost Fellaini to a long-term injury. McLeish has food for thought in terms of selection, with Gardner, Michel and even Tainio taking advantage of their opportunity to play at Pompey. To what extent will McLeish revert to his 'old faithful' starting line-up, I wonder. Carr, Larsson and Bowyer must all be expecting to come back into contention to start on Saturday. Jerome and Benitez combined well enough at Fratton Park to suggest they are worth another go up front, although Everton will surely prove a much tougher nut to crack than hapless Pompey!
The referee for Saturday is Lee Probert from Wiltshire. Last seen at St Andrews in February when we beat Wolves 2-1, on that occasion he managed to book NINE players including Hart, Johnson, Dann, Bowyer and Ferguson! His stats for the season are: 24 games, 92 yellow, 4 red.
A glance at the league table tells you these two sides are well matched, and this is sure to be a close encounter of the footballing kind. Let's hope the groundstaff have managed to get the playing surface back to a better condition so that the teams can show us what they can do.
I expect this to end all square, like the game at Goodison. 1-1 is the safe bet.
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