Another huge game looms as Everton host Brentford on Saturday

Everton take on high-flying Brentford at Goodison Park this weekend in yet another ‘must-win’ match as the games continue to tick by.

This comes after leaving the City Ground with only a point despite leading with minutes to go in last Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest.

Sean Dyche’s team managed to score two goals for the first time in months in that game but almost inevitably, Everton couldn’t hold onto the lead.

So, that puts even more pressure on Saturday’s match at the Grand Old Lady. Had the Blues’ held on and brought three points back to Merseyside, then they would have a little bit more wriggle room when playing Brentford, and in other upcoming games.

However, if they can’t win this weekend’s fixture against the Bees, they will be in serious trouble with the games now running out fast.

Everton have a small number of home games left that they have to win if they are to have any chance of avoiding relegation. Starting with this Saturday.

Dyche has some difficult choices in terms of his team selection. First of all, assuming that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is still out (of course) does he stick with Demarai Gray as the lone front man?

The answer is probably yes. Gray played reasonably well last weekend as the centre-forward and scored the first goal for the Toffees’.

The truth is the Blues’ boss of course has very few options without Calvert-Lewin to call upon. The only other choices are Ellis Simms or Neal Maupay.

Simms doesn’t seem to have the confidence of his manager after playing against Liverpool and Maupay has been a regular starter for Dyche and certainly a success.

That means Gray starting again although might Dyche consider partnering him with Simms or Maupay?

While his midfield is settled enough, at the back there are also choices to be made too. The first one is whether he continues with Ben Godfrey at left-back or returns to Vitalii Mykolenko.

Godfrey had a decent game at the City Ground although some of his tackling was rash and led to some dangerous free kicks.

The alternative, Mykolenko, has struggled recently and while he was absent last weekend because of illness, even if he’s healthy I would be inclined to keep Godfrey in the side.

That’s also because Brentford have a lot of pace up front and so Godfrey might well make more sense from a defensive point of view.

Inside of him, Yerry Mina was back in the side as well. He didn’t have a brilliant game but he is probably the best central defender in the squad.

The Bees’ have had a fine campaign, currently sit solidly in ninth place and the one thing they don’t have a problem with is scoring goals, unlike Everton.

Ivan Toney has netted fifteen times so far this season and represents a huge threat to the Blues’ on Saturday.

Brentford are also unbeaten in the last six matches and so they are confident and in pretty good form coming into this game.

Can Everton find a way to secure all the points in this latest huge challenge? I’m not very confident, but then I never am!

It is possible the Toffees’ can score more than one goal for the second game in a row, but is it likely? If they don’t though, I can’t see a win against the Bees’ and a draw is not enough now.