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Can Ancelotti get three points in first Everton game

By Matt Townsend

BURNLEY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Matthew Lowton of Burnley FC takes on Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lucas Digne of Everton FC during the Premier League match between Burnley FC and Everton FC at Turf Moor on October 05, 2019 in Burnley, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
BURNLEY, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 05: Matthew Lowton of Burnley FC takes on Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lucas Digne of Everton FC during the Premier League match between Burnley FC and Everton FC at Turf Moor on October 05, 2019 in Burnley, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
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The anticipation is nearly over for Carlo Ancelotti’s first match as Everton manager when Burnley are the visitors to Goodison Park on Thursday.

After all the hype and media frenzy has died down, the reality of the situation Everton are in returns to centre stage. Despite bringing in such a distinguished coach, the Toffees are still technically in a relegation battle, for the moment anyway.

After a tough run of fixtures that has seen the Blues take on Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, Everton host Burnley in a fixture that with all due respect to the Clarets, should be a winnable one.

So Ancelotti has a game on Thursday against opposition that he and the Toffees players will feel they have a good chance of beating, especially as it’s at home.

However Burnley did beat Marco Silva’s Blues earlier in the season, and just as they did back in March 2018, Everton had a player sent off as well as suffering defeat.

The Clarets have had another reasonable and solid season and are currently comfortably ensconced exactly halfway up the Premier League in tenth.

Sean Dyche’s team are the same mix of young and experienced professionals with a usually solid defence and a direct attacking style. They are coming into this game on the back of two consecutive wins and will be in a fairly confident mood, although wary of a the new manager uplift that so often happens.

Everton might get two of these bounces in the space of just five games, after certainly getting one when Ferguson took over just a few weeks ago.

As for the home players, there will surely be a real buzz around the training ground this week as Ancelotti starts to put his ideas into practice and his imprint on the Blues side.

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The Italian hinted in his press conference on Monday that he wasn’t thinking of making many immediate changes to the team or their approach under interim boss Duncan Ferguson. And in truth there are still a lot of players carrying injuries of one sort or another, which will probably restrict his choices anyway.

We don’t know yet whether any of those injured players will be fit in time, we will have to wait and see over the next 24 hours.

Ancelotti has generally been tactically very flexible and seems to be ready and willing to fit his playing systems around the personnel he has at his disposal, who have usually been of higher calibre then he has to work with at the moment. So given that I expect a side very similar to what we have seen recently under Ferguson.

I hope and expect that our new Italian boss will get his reign of to a winning start and give Evertonians a slightly late but very welcome extra Christmas gift.