That’s exactly what Nottingham Forest have been under Sean Dyche - the Tricky Trees have won four and drawn one of their matches at the City Ground since the new manager arrived. Although they did lose against Man City last time out, Forest were able to cause problems in that game, which finished 2-1. 

City had also been in dominant form over the last few weeks, making it eight wins on the spin at the weekend, highlighting just how difficult that matchup was. Forest will hope to bounce back strongly, and they will fancy their chances of doing so against a depleted Everton side. 

With Iliman Ndiaye joining up with the Senegal squad for AFCON, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall absent through injury, the Toffees are missing key players, which will certainly play a role here. They failed to beat Burnley at the weekend - the Clarets currently sit in the relegation zone and haven’t won any of their last nine matches.

The Toffees looked out of sync in the final third, but as some consolation, David Moyes will hope Jack Grealish will be able to play a part against Nottingham Forest. The winger was surprisingly omitted from the matchday squad against Burnley, although that was confirmed to be only through illness.

Thierno Barry will also hope to regain his starting spot after only appearing from the bench. His first and only goal for Everton came against Forest just a couple of weeks ago, so he should be looking forward to this matchup. 

Forest come into this one as slight favourites, and they will look to recover after back-to-back losses. As it stands, the Tricky Trees are in 17th spot, just five points above the relegation zone. Sitting in and playing for a draw here will do them no good - they need three points, and are likely to be attack-minded in their approach.

Jordan Pickford made just two saves in that recent meeting with Forest, but the visitors did register three shots on target - James Tarkowski managed to clear one off the line. It wasn’t a vintage performance from the Tricky Trees, who were far from their best, but they have generally performed much better on home turf. 

Prior to their game against Man City, Forest forced Guglielmo Vicario into three saves despite also scoring three goals, meaning they are drawing an average of 3.25 saves per game across all competitions at the City Ground this term. 

There has been a real dichotomy in performances at home compared to away for Nottingham Forest this season, as they are averaging 11.46 shots per game on the road, compared to 15.73 shots at home. Based on that, Pickford should have his fair share of work to get through here, and he will have to be on top form.

It was a feisty affair when these sides last met, and Chris Kavanagh awarded his first booking in the opening minute of the game. That really set the tone for the match, which saw a total of 32 fouls and seven yellow cards shown at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. James Garner somehow managed to avoid committing a foul in that game, despite starting in a defensive midfield role and Everton racking up a total of 17 infringements. However, it is worth noting how he has seen a notable uptick in fouls when playing away this season. 

Garner is averaging just 0.2 fouls per game at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, rising steeply to 1.61 fouls per 90 when playing away. The Englishman has landed this selection in eight of his ten matches across all competitions on the road, including multiple infringements in seven of those games