Premier League preview: Everton v Wigan

Everton and Wigan Athletic will both be looking for their second win of the season when the two sides meet at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Everton sit 10th on the Premier League table and have played one game less than their opponents, who are one place above them.

The hosts will enter the game fresher after Wigan were handed a Carling Cup assignment at Crystal Palace on Tuesday, a match which they lost 2-1.

That will give Everton a three-day advantage in terms of rest and the match is one they would have pencilled in at the start of the season as a comfortable home victory.

But Everton’s squad is not what it was as David Moyes lost three important players on transfer deadline day.

Midfielder Mikel Arteta was sold to Arsenal for a 10-million-pound fee that will be used to service the club’s debts, while strikers Jermaine Beckford (Leicester City) and Yakubu (Blackburn) also departed.

That means that Moyes is desperately short of strikers and he was forced to use midfielders Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini up front in Everton’s last game, against Aston Villa, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Gabriel Agbonlahor equalised with seven minutes to play in that match, robbing Everton of a second successive win, but the lack of goalscorers within Everton’s line-up mean that 23-year-old Argentine Denis Stracqualarsi (on loan) and 19-year-old Greek striker Apostolos Vellios will be given a chance to prove their worth against Wigan.

The Latics were predictably defeated by Manchester City, 3-0, but have shown enough in the early stages of the season to suggest they are not the certainties for relegation that some thought, despite the loss of Charles N’Zogbia in the transfer window.

Everton have only Victor Anichebe (groin) on the injury list, while Wigan will miss Antolin Alcaraz (thigh) and Steven Gohouri (calf).