Match Preview
Everton vrs Fulham
Premier League MD 07 1819 at Goodison Park
Saturday 29th September 2018 KO: 15:00
Referee:
Roger East (Wiltshire)
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Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic has said his players must "be brave" if they are to end the club's abysmal losing streak at Goodison Park.
Fulham can leapfrog their opponents with a win on Saturday, but the west Londoners have never recorded a league victory on the blue half of Merseyside, losing each of their last 21 visits.
Jokanovic expects another difficult afternoon but has urged his players to show courage against a side who have failed to win either of their last two home matches.
He said: "They are a good team. We are talking about a top six and if you add Everton, you are thinking about top seven.
"It's really complicated away from home, like the Etihad or Wembley. They are strong and experienced and we know it will be problematic there. Our job is to find a solution, push hard and fight for the victory.
"We are in a similar position to Everton and other Premier League teams, and we consider Saturday to be the next chance for us to be brave and I hope we can make this step.
"It's not my first trip, many years ago I played in this place. It's a fantastic place to play football. It's a complicated and tough opponent. We will arrive there with motivation and intention to fight for three points."
Goals can be expected at Goodison on Saturday. Despite the blank at Arsenal last time out, Everton have scored in ten of their past 11 Premier League games and conceded in each of their past eight.
The Toffees have won all 13 of their home Premier League matches against Fulham, but the Cottagers have an in-form striker in Aleksandar Mitrovic, who is the joint-top scorer in the Premier League this season alongside Eden Hazard.
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Fulham have never won a league match at Goodison Park, losing the last 21 fixtures (D4, L22).
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Everton's 21 successive home victories is a top-flight record for any side against the same opponent.
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Fulham are one short of 300 top-flight victories.
- They have won only one of their last 13 Premier League away matches, drawing three and losing nine.
- The Cottagers are on a club top-flight record run of 21 away fixtures without a clean sheet since a 1-0 win at Sunderland in 2013.
- Aleksandar Mitrovic has scored 17 goals since making his Fulham debut in February 2018 - more than any other player in the top four tiers of English football.
- Games involving Fulham this season have produced a joint league-high 21 goals, the same as Bournemouth.
Everton have won just once in eight league games since May, drawing four games and losing three.
- The Toffees could lose consecutive Premier League home matches for the first time since October 2017. Ronald Koeman was sacked after losses to Burnley and Arsenal.
- They have been defeated just once in 26 Premier League fixtures against promoted opposition (W15, D10), a 2-1 defeat at Burnley in 2016.
- Everton and Fulham are two of the three clubs not to have kept a Premier League clean sheet this season, along with Brighton.
- Marco Silva has not presided over a clean sheet in 17 fixtures.
- Tom Davies became Everton's youngest Premier League captain at 20 years, two months and 24 days in the loss at Arsenal.
Everton's starting XI at the Emirates had an average age of 24 years and 250 days - the youngest in the league this season.