Everton face Manchester City on Boxing Day – and it’s a great time to be playing the reigning Premier League champions.
Everton have just drawn their last two Premier League games with Chelsea and Arsenal, which followed a 4-0 win over Wolves.
City have won just one of their last 12 games across all competitions, in a run of form that is absolutely unheard of for the club under Pep Guardiola.
City have missed Rodri massively, and have been all at sea at the back.
This game, therefore, presents a genuine opportunity for Everton to get three points, and for Dyche to make a real statement before The Friedkin Group, who became Everton’s new owners last week.
And the manager could well get a lot of joy by starting one man in particular.
Dyche must unleash Armando Broja on struggling Man City
Everton have really struggled in front of goal this season.
Jordan Pickford is top of the clean sheets chart, and Everton have shipped a very respectable 21 goals in 16 games, a record bettered by only the current top four.
But the 14 goals scored is very poor, with the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Beto both having disappointing seasons.
Which is why Sean Dyche should strongly consider starting Broja against City.
The Albania international has now come on in the last two games he’s been available for against Wolves and Arsenal. He could face his parent club Chelsea on Sunday.
But Broja is a physical presence, and someone with a turn of pace. And we’ve seen over the last two months that this City team does not deal at all well with players with these attributes.
On Sunday, Jhon Duran gave the City backline the runaround around. And Dusan Vlahovic and Viktor Gyokeres both got real joy when they faced City in the Champions League recently for Juventus and Sporting CP respectively.
Broja – previously branded ‘very talented’ by former Everton boss Frank Lampard – has a similar profile to these players, and has the potential to really unsettle City’s defence, which will be without the injured Ruben Dias and John Stones.
Dyche said Broja wasn’t quite ready to start against Arsenal, and suggested there was still a way to go for the striker. But a couple of weeks have since passed, and Everton are crying out for a greater threat up top.
He could seriously help Everton to win this game, if his teammates a the back can continue to perform so solidly.
