Chelsea will meet Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The Blues seem to have found their feet again after two consecutive league wins while the Toffees were held to a 2-2 home draw last week by West Ham. If the match ends in a draw it will be replayed at Stamford Bridge.
Second placed Arsenal will meet 14th placed Everton on Tuesday in a game with three very important points at stake. Arsenal will be looking to keep up the pace with leaders Manchester United and maybe reduce the five-point game that separates them from the top while Everton are trying to steer clear of the lower end of the league table. The last games saw Arsenal beating Wigan 3-0 while Everton were held to a 2-2 draw by West Ham.
Fernando Torres is fit again and he can play in the Merseyside Derby after being injured for a while following the disastrous game against Blackpool. Manager Roy Hodgson expressed his faith in the striker: "Fernando's season needs to kick-start, he's been hampered a bit by injuries and what happened at the World Cup. We see a livelier and a better Fernando every day. It was really unfortunate he got that injury against Blackpool but luckily it came in the international break so he won't miss any more league games for us."
A mid-table derby between Bolton and Everton will take place on Sunday with the two teams being separated by just three points. Bolton are in 8th place and continue to hope for a place in the Europa League while Everton are 13th, struggling to make it into the top half of the table. Bolton were beaten 2-1 at Tottenham last week while Everton beat Blackpool 5-3 at home.
Tottenham and Everton will meet at White Hart Lane on Saturday in a pretty unpredictable game. Tottenham had a very good start to their Premier League season and are sitting 5th with 14 points but they might be tired after playing with 10 men on the pitch for almost 90 minutes against Inter in the Champions League. On the other hand Everton are coming from two straight wins, 2-0 at Birmingham and 2-0 in the Merseyside Derby.
Chelsea will meet Everton on Saturday in a replay of the FA Cup fourth round. The two teams drew 1-1 a few weeks ago so Chelsea will have the home ground advantage in the replay. The two teams are coming from disappointing league results lately, Chelsea were held to a goalless draw at Fulham while Everton got beaten 2-0 at Bolton.
Arsenal beat Everton 6-1 last season at Goodison Park but that might not happen again on Sunday as the Toffees seem quite hard to beat lately. Arsenal will be looking to follow up on the midweek away victory at Wolves while Everton will try to extend their unbeaten run and climb towards the top half of the table.
Everton and Birmingham will meet on Wednesday in a game that has three important points at stake, at least for the visitors. After winning the Carling Cup against Arsenal Birmingham suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of West Brom in the league and that pulled them into the relegation zone. Everton are in 10th place before the game as they won 2-1 at Newcastle last week.
Sunderland are coming from a famous victory last weekend when they demolished Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and it will be interesting to see if they will manage to maintain the good form into the next game, at home with Everton. The Toffees suffered a painful home defeat last weekend when they got beaten 2-1 by Arsenal.
