Everton travel to London on Sunday to take on West Ham United, who sit bottom of the Women’s Super League.
The match represents a great chance for the Toffee’s to pick up points, with encouraging displays against Manchester City and Aston Villa in their last two games.
Brian Sorensen’s side, who sit in 10th place, have notched all five of their league points on the road this campaign, so a trip to the capital gives them a good opportunity to continue their away form.
West Ham are winless in the league all season, but thumped Southampton 5-0 on Wednesday evening in the League Cup. Everton haven’t won a WSL match since the opening day, where summer signing Ornella Vignola scored a debut hat-trick against neighbours Liverpool at Anfield.
It’s early in the season to be using the cliche ‘six-pointer’, but given the positions of both sides, Sorensen emphasised the importance of this weekend’s clash.
He told Mersey Sport Live: “They will do everything to get a win, and we’ll do the same. I hope it’s going to be an exciting game, but I can also imagine there’ll be some nerves on both sides because there’s a lot on the line.”
In this season’s WSL campaign, data from OneFootball shows Everton are averaging 1.38 goals per 90, although they’re conceding two. However, this is still better reading than the Hammers’ averages; they score 0.38 goals per 90 and concede 2.38.
Everton have a host of summer signings staking their claim for a spot in the first XI. One of those new faces is Spanish attacker Vignola. She has impressed not only with goalscoring prowess, but also her work rate, qualities that have led Sorensen to compare her to some of the best strikers in the WSL.
He said: “If you look at the data, she’s running double the amount of intensive metres that Bunny (Shaw) and (Vivianne) Miedema are doing.
“She does so much for the team and still has an impact on the offensive end. There’s a great player there and a great future, she’s a good kid.”
Sorensen was keen to praise the mentality of his group after coming back to salvage a point against Villa and a valiant effort against league leaders City.
He said: “The resilience has always been there, but sometimes you don’t get the output, we didn’t get it on the weekend unfortunately.
“We’re working to be better and also not to be in that situation, but I think the character in this group is superb and it always has been.”
Depending on results around them, a win for Everton could see them leapfrog a Leicester City side who split the points with the Toffee’s when they met in October.
Sorensen will be hoping for another encouraging performance from his side but needs the chances to fall to steer the Blues’ clear of a relegation battle.
