Everton v Wigan

By John Roder
Match of the Day commentator

TEAM NEWS

John Heitinga should be fit to return for Everton, having missed last weekend’s draw against Villa with a calf injury.

Royston Drenthe scored for the reserves on Tuesday night and is pushing for a full Premier League debut.

Wigan’s Emmerson Boyce is a doubt with a hamstring strain, while Steven Gohouri and Antolin Alcaraz remain out.

Shaun Maloney, David Jones and Patrick van Aanholt could make their league debuts for the club.

MATCH PREVIEW

Six years ago next weekend, Wigan played at Everton for the first time and Damien Francis scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory for the new arrivals in the Premier League. Looking back at the line-ups from that day there were six players involved who could feature this weekend: Leon Osman, Phil Neville and Tim Cahill were in the Everton team, with Tony Hibbert on the bench, while Leighton Baines – now with Everton – was in the Wigan side, with Mike Pollitt a substitute.

Wigan haven’t won at Everton since that day back in 2005; I remember two of the meetings, in August 2007 and April 2009, as I was there for MotD, so this fixture is becoming a regular assignment for me.

It could be quite a day for the aforementioned Neville and Cahill; the captain will make his 200th Premier League appearance for Everton if he plays, while the Australian surprisingly hasn’t scored a goal for the club in 2011. Another surprising Everton statistic is that Everton have scored nine of their last 10 Premier League goals in the second half, the exception being Leon Osman’s goal against Aston Villa last weekend.

Wigan will be looking for more goals from top scorer Franco Di Santo after his double against QPR, and with Everton having conceded three goals at home in the league already, Wigan will fancy their chances of scoring their first away goal in the league.

I know and appreciate why Everton want to move away from Goodison, but a trip to the famous old ground is always an enjoyable one. The atmosphere is superb, the commentary position is good (although a little scary to get to) and the post-match interview is always a challenge. Why? The TV interview room is the size of half a shoebox!

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• Everton are unbeaten in their last five meetings with Wigan, although the last two have been drawn (W3, D2).
• Wigan’s only victory in seven trips to Goodison Park came in their inaugural league meeting on 24 September 2005. Damien Francis scored the decisive goal.

Everton

• Everton are winless at Goodison Park this season, having taken 24 points out of a possible 30 in their last 10 home matches of the 2010/11 campaign.
• They won only three of their first 17 league matches last season.
• Tim Cahill has failed to score for Everton in 2011. His run of 13 league matches without a goal is his longest drought in six years.
• Leighton Baines made 72 Premier League appearances for Wigan. He scored the winner against his old side at Goodison Park in August 2009.

Wigan

• Wigan seven-match unbeaten run ended with last weekend’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester City.
• They and Swansea are the only two Premier League clubs without an away goal this season.
• Hugo Rodallega needs one more goal to become the first Wigan player to score 10 away goals in the Premier League.
• Two-goal leading scorer Franco Di Santo had only managed one goal in 69 appearances in English football prior to this season.