Pundit Paul Merson has now predicted who will win as Everton travel to Aston Villa this weekend.
Both sides are looking for their first points of the Premier League season having each suffered opening day defeats last week.
The Toffees lost 1-0 at home to Fulham, while Villa were demolished 5-1 at Newcastle United, though Merson says ‘I expect’ Unai Emery’s side to overcome Everton this weekend.
Writing in his weekly Sportskeeda column, Merson predicts a 2-0 win for the Villains, stating: “Everton played well last week. They were closing people down, hurrying players and making things difficult for the opponents.
They conjured up a few good chances as well. But that’s the problem with teams like Everton. They are struggling because they can’t score goals.
You need to score goals to win matches and if they can’t get Dominic Calvert-Lewin to play at least 25 matches and score goals, they’ll struggle again. I expect Aston Villa to get their first win of the season here.”
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Goals have been hard to come by for the Toffees and the search for a new striker continues, though Sean Dyche has added Youseff Chermiti from Sporting CP in a £15m deal and Arnaut Danjuma on loan from Villarreal.
Jack Harrison has also moved to Merseyside on loan from Leeds United, though is currently unavailable due to a hip injury.
Both sides will want to bounce back from opening day disappointments last week and Villa have had the edge over Everton in recent seasons.
The Villains are unbeaten in the last eight Premier League meetings against the Toffees and have won the last four on the bounce.
Everton have never lost five consecutive league games against Aston Villa, but to avoid such an unwanted record, Sean Dyche’s side will have to prove Paul Merson wrong this weekend.