After all the rumours, obituaries and tales of back-stabbing, Avram Grant has somehow kept his job at West Ham. The precarious nature of his position has not changed, the Hammers remain bottom and have played a game more than everyone else around them, however the Israeli will hope that he is now given some space to help save the football club.

With a Carling Cup semi-final second leg to come, this fixture hardly represents a chance to rest players, and Grant would take three points at Goodison Park at the expense of the cup dream.

Everton were excellent in patches during the Merseyside derby- the attacking impetus of Tim Cahill was most certainly a big miss, however with the Australian again missing out, David Moyes may feel that the decision to allow Nigerian, Yakubu away on loan was a premature one.

The Hammers need something here. Last weekend’s thrashing at the hands of Arsenal was dispiriting, and with a string of season defining fixtures on the horizon, a decent showing on Saturday is a pre-requisite.

Prediction: 1-1

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