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Hull City vs Everton

Lyndon Lloyd , 9 May, 0comments  |  Jump to most recent
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Everton bring the curtain down on a hugely impressive first season under Roberto Martinez this Sunday with their final match of 2013-14 and a trip to Hull City.

With 5th place a footballing certainty — an Everton defeat, a win for Tottenham over Aston Villa with a 19-goal swing is the only way the Blues could finish any lower — the only thing left to play for are a victory to see out the season in style and the extension of what is already a record Premier League points haul to 72 points.

Martinez has stated on numerous occasions that he wants to finish with as many points as possible and had long ago made 71 points his goal so he will probably be urging his players to put three more on the board against a team who will surely have one eye on the FA Cup Final against Arsenal.

In actual fact, it's the Tigers' date with the Gunners at Wembley next Saturday that will have more bearing on Everton's immediate future than this weekend's dead rubber at the KC Stadium. Should Arsenal win the FA Cup, it would guarantee that the Blues' Europa League campaign would start in September in the group stage of the competition whereas a triumph for Hull would necessitate Everton going into the final qualifying round in late August.

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A few weeks ago, Evertonians still harboured hopes that the team's Champions League hopes would still be alive going into this game and fears that Nikica Jelavic would be the one to break their hearts by perhaps scoring the winning goal against his old teammates.

The Croatian is level with Matty Fryatt with season goals for the season in all competitions but was an unused substitute in the defeat at Manchester United in midweek, perhaps because Steve Bruce wanted to give more time for Fryatt to sharpen up seeing as Jelavic is cup-tied for the Final.

Everton, meanwhile, expect to welcome two players back from extended layoffs in the form of Steven Pienaar and Lacina Traoré. The latter has played just 60 minutes of football for the Blues since arriving on loan from Monaco and spent almost three months since then sidelined with a torn hamstring. The former, meanwhile, has been out for two months since limping out of the FA Cup defeat at Arsenal and his craft has been missed at times, particularly when options off the bench have been scarce in recent games due to mounting injuries.

Both players could see action at some point and Martinez is believed to be very keen to see Traore return on loan next season so would no doubt be interested to see him get some playing time in this one to inform his thinking. Darron Gibson is the third long-term absentee to have returned to full training but he is not expected to be ready.

In terms of debutants from the younger members of the squad, Ryan Ledson's involvement in the U17 European Championships has precluded him making his bow but Tyias Browning stands a chance, perhaps, of coming on as a substitute to get a taste of first-team action if he is named on the bench; likewise for Luke Garbutt who has already featured briefly in the game at Southampton.

Gareth Barry is expected to return to the starting XI for what could be his last match in an Everton jersey after being ineligible to face Manchester City last weekend, possibly at the expense of Leon Osman if Martinez elects to keep Ross Barkley in the team.

Kick off: 3pm

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