MatchEverton v Liverpool: Merseyside derby team news

Premier League leaders Liverpool take a short trip to neighbours Everton for a 12.30pm GMT kick-off that will be the last clash between the clubs in the top flight at Goodison Park.

Arne Slot will be without Alexis Mac Allister for the game, with the Argentinian serving a suspension following his fifth yellow card of the league campaign at Newcastle United in midweek.

Alisson Becker is not yet available for selection, while Federico Chiesa – who played an hour for the Reds’ U21s on Wednesday night – and Diogo Jota are ‘close to being back’.

“Not ready yet, but he will be ready very soon,” Slot told the media of Alisson during his pre-match press conference on Friday.

Slot continued: “[The midfield line] is not our main worry at the moment, our main worry is if you look at how close they are all back of [having] playing time, there’s only three injuries left and that’s in our last line.

“With Diogo being close to being back, Federico being close to being back, and the same for Alisson.

“That means only Ibou [Konate], Conor [Bradley] and Kostas [Tsimikas] are a bit further away from playing time.”

Ryan Gravenberch is now a yellow card away from a one-game ban in the league.

Blues boss Sean Dyche confirmed on Thursday that his side came through Wednesday night’s 4-0 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers without any new injury issues.

“A couple of knocks but nothing serious, nothing that we think is going to put anyone in doubt,” he told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

Dyche continued: “Michael Keane will be touch and go [for] coming back into it, he’s got a minor knee ligament injury which has kept him out.

“Youssef [Chermiti] is getting stronger but not there; Tim [Iroegbunam] is a bit of a way off behind, so is Jimmy Garner, but they’re in the process of getting back fit.”

Armando Broja, who is on loan from Chelsea, made his first senior appearance for Everton as a late substitute in midweek.

Dyche was asked how close the forward is to being named in the starting XI and if he could be used in tandem with Dominic Calvert-Lewin in attack.

“We’ll learn about him, because we haven’t seen hardly any of him. He’s been out training with us for a couple of weeks but obviously we can only manage so many training sessions where we’ve got three [games] in a week,” he replied.

“I liked what I saw, I like what I’ve seen in training. I like his attitude towards it, his attitude to get fit, he has worked very hard to get fit.

“And I thought [he] had a good cameo [against Wolves]. You get pressure from the opposition, you get pressure to play but also your internal pressure from your group. And the more people you’ve got fit, the more internal pressure there is for players to play well all the time.

“I hope that’ll stimulate others, including himself of course, to play well.”

Last match

Everton 4-0 Wolves (December 4): Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Mangala, Ndiaye, Doucoure, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin.

Newcastle 3-3 Liverpool (December 4): Kelleher, Quansah, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones, Salah, Gakpo, Nunez.