Jagielka injury won’t prevent Everton beating West Ham

Everton are unbeaten against West Ham in 12 meetings since a 1-0 defeat at Upton Park in April 2007 and the absence of Phil Jagielka for the upcoming Premier League encounter because of a hamstring injury shouldn’t dent their unbeaten run.

Having missed over nine months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament towards the end of the 2008/09 campaign, Jagielka has been pretty much an ever-present since.

In the last four seasons, he has missed just 10 Premier League games at Goodison Park and Everton have only lost one of these, to Arsenal.

Meanwhile, this batch of games also includes two home victories for Everton over both Tottenham and Manchester City and another over Chelsea.

Not only have Everton shown they can beat the best sides without arguably their best central defender, but Jagielka’s most likely replacements have also taken a liking to playing in front of the Goodison Park faithful.

John Stones has achieved victory on all four home appearances this season, while Antolin Alcaraz has triumphed on both of his. Alcaraz was also a part of the Wigan team that left Goodison with a 3-0 FA Cup success last season.

Everton’s odds are 4/11 to beat West Ham and this may be deemed a short price by some, against opposition that have won their last four fixtures, all by a two-goal margin.

West Ham also scored twice against Everton earlier in the season, although two Leighton Baines free-kicks were a big influence in the Toffees securing a 3-2 win.

This not only marked Everton’s third successive triumph over the Hammers, but the eighth time in nine meetings that they have netted at least twice against them.

Everton scoring over 1.5 goals again can be backed at 1/2, while also taking into account West Ham’s current scoring form, over 3.5 goals in the match has some appeal at 2/1.