Everton return from the international break on Saturday with an away trip to Aston Villa as they search for their first points.
It has not been the start to the season which Sean Dyche will have hoped for with the Toffees sat rock bottom in the Premier League.
Three defeats from three but the cherry was put on top of the cake last time out when Everton let their two-goal lead slip in the final minutes against Bournemouth.
To not even come away from the game with a point was a disaster and Dyche will be wanting to see a big reaction from his players.
But it is not going to be an easy game against the Champions League outfit and Everton will be coming up against one of their former players in Amadou Onana who joined Villa over the summer.
Alan Shearer shares his Aston Villa vs Everton prediction
Villa have made a solid start to the new campaign with two wins from their opening three which only saw them lose to Arsenal.
Saturday is going to provide a real challenge for the Toffees who could well be staring at four opening games without a point.
Not many will have Everton down to take something from the game on Saturday evening with a mammoth effort needed to overturn the form books.
And Shearer is not someone who is expecting much from Dyche’s side as he has predicted the hosts to take all three points.
“It’s another tough one for Everton. Their confidence must be really, really low after what happened against Bournemouth last time out,” he told Metro.
“It will have been a long international break for them, and I think that’ll continue. I don’t see them getting anything out of the game, so I’ll go for a home win.
“Aston Villa found out their Champions League fate last week, having worked so hard to get there, so I bet they can’t wait to get started next week.
“They have got a bigger squad, but there’s no doubt about it, it is going to be tested. We saw what happened to Newcastle in terms of the injuries and it’ll be very interesting to see how they handle the added workload.”
Everton need to give their fans some hope
There will not be many fans going into the game on Saturday expecting the Blues to come away with anything.
After all, Villa have shown their quality over the last 12 months in becoming a Champions League calibre side.
However, this does not mean that Saturday is a free pass for Everton to return to Merseyside with nothing, the players still need to provide a solid showing for their fans.
Villa face their first Champions League game on Tuesday, so there could well be some squad management going on against Everton.
Next up after Villa is a game against Leicester City and that is certainly one Everton need to go into eyeing all three points.
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