Season › 2011-12 › News Stoke City vs Everton Lyndon Lloyd , 1 May, 67comments | Jump to most recent Match Preview Everton's intent to finish a season that started so poorly on a high has been backed up by a glut of goals and some fine performances, leaving David Moyes's side on course for a seventh-placed finish. The team that could barely score earlier this season has now scored twelve in their last three Premier League matches, thanks to some wonderfully enterprising football, the rejuvenated Steven Pienaar and, of course, the goals of one Nikica Jelavic who has reached double figures for the Blues in just 951 minutes of play — that's faster than any striker in Everton history. Quite the change from when the Blues last met Stoke City back in early December. A demoralising defeat that day started a run of 10 matches in which they scored just seven times and had, by the time they'd been held by Blackburn Rovers in mid-January, slumped to 14th place in the table. Much has changed since then, not least the triple introduction of Jelavic, Pienaar and Darron Gibson, the last of whom has brought a quiet assurance to the Blues' centre and given Marouane Fellaini license to boss the midfield when the two have been paired together. Everton are now looking to make it seven League games without defeat since Arsenal escaped from Goodison with a highly fortunate victory seven weeks ago, an unbeaten sequence that has yielded 18 goals, six of them for the new Croatian toast of Goodison. Article continues below video content Moyes will have similar selection options for this trip to the Britannia Staidum against 14th placed Stoke. Jack Rodwell and Leighton Baines remain on the injured list with hamstring strains and Royston Drenthe is quickly becoming a forgotten man after his disciplinary transgressions effectively ended his Everton career prematurely. The manager may elect to use some of this younger, budding players as substitutes but, given the tricky nature of playing Stoke on their own patch, with their aerial bombardments from long throws and emphasis on finding the head of the giraffine Peter Crouch from the wings, Moyes probably won't be too risky with his selection. With Liverpool playing at home to Fulham, the side the Blues despatched so easily by four goals to nil on Saturday, Everton really need a victory to ensure that they preserve that two-point lead over the neighbours heading into final two games of the campaign. The way they've been playing, you wouldn't bet against them. » Read more Live Matchday Forum Reader Comments (67) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads