Coleman to be assessed ahead of Villa trip

Seamus Coleman has been described by Sean Dyche as "touch and go" for Saturday after sustaining a knock on international duty with Ireland last weekend.

The Club captain had to be withdrawn from the Nations League match against England after taking a kick to the ankle from Harry Maguire but he has a chance of being involved in Everton's clash with Aston Villa.

Sean Dyche said that he will be assessed during the team's training session on Friday morning before any decision is made but the manager reiterated that Nathan Patterson and Jarrad Branthwaite remain a way from match fitness after recovering from their respective hamstring and hernia surgeries.

Both players have returned to training with the first-team in the hope that they can either figure in the Carabao Cup tie against Southampton next Tuesday or against Leicester the following Saturday.

Meanwhile, Orel Mangala is poised for this first involvement as an Everton player after arriving from Lyon on loan on transfer deadline day.

The Belgian went straight to join up with his Red Devils team-mates for their international fixtures over the break but arrived at Finch Farm "bright and breezy and wants to be part of the group", in Dyche's words and he is expected to be in the squad for the trip to Villa Park.

The former Nottingham Forest midfielder will wear the No.8 shirt vacated by Amadou Onana who joined the Villans over the summer in a £50m deal and if Mangala is handed his debut, the two compatriots could face off in midfield this weekend.

Onana, who made his own debut off the bench for Everton in this fixture two years ago, has made a strong start to life in the Midlands with two goals in his first three Premier League games but the Blues will be hoping for a repeat of their performance in the EFL Cup on this ground last season as opposed to the 4-0 drubbing they suffered against Unai Emery's men 13 months ago.

Everton ended Villa's long unbroken sequence of home wins by defeating them handsomely in the third round tie, with James Garner and Dominic Calvert-Lewin on target in a 2- victory.

Calvert-Lewin opened his account for this season against Bournemouth last time out, a strike that made it 2-0 on the day to the Toffees before a historic collapse in nine minutes allowed the Cherries to plunder all three points and leave Everton bottom of the table.

Dyche was asked during his pre-match press conference how he explains an implosion like the one his team suffered in that match and how he and his staff go about picking the players up after such a psychological setback.

“I’d like to think after [my] 20 months here, the players would have learned to deal with those situations," Dyche replied. "Obviously, we didn’t on the day; we didn’t do the things that were necessary to see the game through and we’ve got to continually learn from that.

“You know, the game’s never over. I’ve been asked many times about not celebrating goals, and that’s why — the game’s never over. Until the game’s finished., then you can have a quiet celebration in my case, but that’s why I don’t go running up and down the pitch and that sort of stuff because the game [can] change.

“Against Bournemouth was a good example of that when the game should be dead, we know that. [A] very strong performance for 87-ish minutes and then we all saw what went on next.

“That was a really hard one to take and it happens from time to time. Fortunately not very often but it did happen, so how we deal with that and we talk to the players [is important] but most of them are mature enough to see if through and we just didn’t do that.”

 

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