Everton – Villa. An intriguing game.

I don’t know why I find this one intriguing, but I do.

Last season I’d probably have described it as a run of the mill win for us, but this time, I wonder if Moyes can have a new manage bounce effect on the game and couple it with how awful we are at times and I think anything might happen tonight.

Let’s start with the good news and it is that we’ve signed Donyell Malen, who looks to be predominantly a right sided player in Unai Emery’s thinking, because the manager has talked about this being a “one in, one out” policy, adding Jaden Philogene into the mix, who seems to be an almost certain goner.

Or did he mean that this will be the policy for the whole of the window and all players involved?

Whatever, things are seriously starting to warm up now and we seem to have moved on from the 100% guesswork that we usually get at the beginning of the month.

Diego Carlos is apparently being chased by Fenerbache, if Mourinho doesn’t get the sack and my feeling there is that it’s probably the right time all round to do that deal. He could do a very decent job in Turkey and we recoup some much needed PSR cash. It’s win-win. I think probably a more salient point here is that Emery has said Carlos has a small injury. The player says he is not injured at all.

Things are not 100% happy in the camp, it would seem.

Not wanting to dwell on that, squad news and it isn’t great.

On the plus side, we should have Emi Martinez back and Jhon Duran has finished his suspension, meaning he’s available. Will he start? is another question and I suspect not, which will surely add to his frustration. It’s a tough life for a young lad on 100k a week or whatever it is, isn’t it? It would appear he’s going nowhere though and we’ve stuck an £85 million pricetag on his head, which, while putting pretty much all clubs off, might prove a disastrous mistake for them if he ends up as another Haarland.

Pau is probably going to be out for 2 months and McGinn is a week away from training again, if I read things right. I’m not sure how much that concerns me, to be honest, as neither have been great and they probably need the R&R.

And then, Ross Barkley is at least two weeks away from being fit, which is bad news, because as much as I didn’t fancy him when he came, he has done a very decent job and he’s being managed well and used sparingly to good effect. He’s a miss and the sooner he’s back, the better.

As for Everton, they’re not in great shape.

Dwight McNeil, James Garner, Tim Iroegbunam are all out., as is Armando Broja who was stretchered off after an innocuous challenge in Thursday’s FA Cup match against Peterborough.

The good news for them is that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is back in contention, although he’s only scored two goals all season.

What to think then and I ought to be hopeful, I feel. Everton play pretty decent stuff from what I’ve seen of them and have often been unlucky, I feel. But they can’t score for toffee and that costs them some serious points.

I’d normally go for a very straightforward win here, but my money says we won’t get one.

At best, we’ll scrape one and I just hope it isn’t as dire as the first half of the West Ham game.

But I’m going for a 1-1 draw if I have to choose. I just can’t trust us to get a win, I’m afraid, although our record is actually better than I make things sound.

As per usual, UTV!