Everton v QPR Preview

Everton belatedly begin their Premier League campaign on Saturday, having not played last week due to panic on the streets of London. We still managed to have a better opening weekend than QPR though - Saturday's opponents were thumped 0-4 at home to Bolton.

After waiting so long for the return of the football season, the postponement of the Spurs match came as an obvious disappointment. There are some positives that we can take out of it though, something I have gone into further detail on here.

The extra week has seen the return to fitness of the best little Spaniard we know, Mikel Arteta, meaning that the only absentees are Seamus Coleman and Magaye Gueye (both injured) and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, who is suspended following his dismissal against West Brom at the tail end of last season.

Our opponents have plenty of injury and suspension troubles of their own; Jamie Mackie still hasn't recovered from a broken leg he suffered last season, Clint Hill was shown red in the defeat to Bolton and Kieron 'glass ankles' Dyer lasted all of 4 minutes into his QPR debut before being stretchered off.

It has been a turbulent week for Everton and The Blue Union's interview with Bill Kenwright proved very interesting indeed. The Chairman confirmed Evertonians' fears that we have large debts that need to be addressed before we are able to invest in the club, and that banks are becoming less and less willing to support us in the way of loans.

It looks as if we are in for a tough few years unless a sugar daddy comes along and the interview has compounded a Summer of frustration and stagnation on the blue half of Merseyside.

On the pitch, Everton hastily arranged a friendly with Irish side Bohemians following the cancellation of the Spurs fixture. On a rain-soaked Monday night in Dublin, Everton took the lead thanks to a poacher's goal from Jermaine Beckford - his first goal of pre-season - but were pegged back by a fine individual effort from Anto Flood.

For the first half of the game we had nigh on 70% possession but just a single shot on goal - let's hope it doesn't prove to be the same old story throughout the coming season.

Saturday looks sure to be an interesting game - how will both sides respond to off-the-field worries and an opening day drubbing respectively? The newly-promoted Hoops may be reeling from the crushing defeat to Bolton and they do have a few players who could hurt us.

Jay Bothroyd took a tour of Finch Farm in the Summer but Everton were unwilling to match his wage demands. He may regret that decision but, although I for one am glad we swerved him, he and DJ Campbell are a lively front duo.

However, QPR's main man is clearly Moroccan magician Adel Taarabt. If we can nullify him - as Bolton did so effectively last week - we nullify a large proportion of QPR's attacking threat. I suspect Marouane Fellaini will be asked to do a job on him in a defensive midfield position.

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STAT'S LIFE

Welcome to a new feature for the new season - 5 of the best stats in each and every match preview!

• Everton have lost 99 home matches in the Premier League - let's hope QPR don't make it 100!
• Our last seven league goals have been scored in the second half.
• If selected, Tony Hibbert will be making his 250th Everton start. Perfect time to break his goalscoring duck!
• Everton have not kept a clean sheet in their opening fixture since 1998.
• A defeat would mean four successive opening day losses - which would be an unwanted record.

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It is a fixture we should most definitely look to win, although we are Everton and we never ever do things the easy way. Just ask West Brom, West Ham, Wolves, Birmingham, Reading etc.

I am going to predict an Everton win though - Jermaine Beckford and Mikel Arteta to get to goals.

StickyToffee Prediction: Everton 2-0 QPR