League leaders Arsenal come to Hill Dickinson Stadium tomorrow to take on Everton, the Gunners first trip to the Toffees new ground.
There's been much discussion about Everton getting off the snide on away grounds such as Old Trafford and the Vitality Stadium, not to mention the continued poor showings at Stamford Bridge. In that respect, matches against Arsenal don't carry quite the same venom.
Since November 2010, Everton and Arsenal have faced off 33 times, primarily in the Premier League, as well as in one preseason friendly and a couple of tournaments. In that period, the Gunners are far and away the most successful of the two sides, winning 19 of those matchups, with seven draws along with the same number of Everton victories.
If you shorten the time span to the beginning of 2020, the clubs have faced off 12 times, and the numbers look a little less lopsided.
Since a Premier League contest on February 23, 2020, Arsenal have won five of twelve, Everton have four wins, with three draws in the mix, including the last two, featuring one of the final matches at Goodison Park, a 1-1 draw.
Obviously, this Arsenal side are a different breed than some of those other squads, leading the Premier League through 16 matches with 36 points, two ahead of Manchester City and three points clear of Aston Villa.
So it's safe to say that this particular match will be even more difficult from an Everton perspective, especially given how thin the Toffees' squad is at the moment.
This isn't to say that Everton can't pack it in and defend the goal in order to snatch a point, but this isn't how home sides prefer to play things. David Moyes may not have a choice since his goal-scoring options have diminished with Iliman Ndiaye away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall injured. Missing your two leading goal scorers in one fell swoop isn't ideal for anyone, but Everton aren't built to sustain such losses.
Recent history suggests that Arsenal do not obviously have the upper hand here, but football matches are not played via historical analysis.
Instead, the players on the pitch decide the outcome, and despite recent relative success against the Gunners, Everton will have their work cut out for them on Saturday evening at Hill Dickinson.