Sean Dyche met with the press ahead of Monday’s trip to Chelsea

Everton are preparing to travel to Stamford Bridge for their Monday night clash of the Blues as they visit Chelsea, and manager Sean Dyche spoke to the media earlier today during his pre-match press conference.

The Blues were somewhat depleted last weekend as they hosted Burnley, with both their key central midfielders out. Idrissa Gana Gueye missed the clash after his wife gave birth to their baby the night before the game, while Amadou Onana was held out for precautionary reasons with soreness following training. With Ramadan now over, the pair are now expected back at full fitness for the Monday game.

“He’s [Onana] back training, he’s been training today.

“Gana’s child and family are well. So he has been training this week and should be available again.”

Dyche however did report that there were a couple of new injury concerns, including newly-in-form striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The 27-year-old finally broke his goal drought and now has two goals in the last two games, but appeared to have strained a hamstring. Additionally, midfielder James Garner also picked up a minor issue in training today at Finch Farm.

“Jimmy Garner got a knock today, but we are happy that’s just a knock. Dom didn’t train today but we are pretty positive with settling him down in the next couple of days.

“[He has] a minor niggly hamstring which we are just being ultra careful with. He thinks he is on top of it, and the medical team are as well. So we are just having to watch the players and make sure they are right. Mostly, we have just got knocks at the minute, nothing that we think will affect Monday against Chelsea.”

Everton’s anaemic forward line could be set for a boost however, with Arnaut Danjuma set for a recall to the squad after recovering from his ankle ailment.

“Hopefully, providing he came through today, he has a bounce game tomorrow (match for the Under-21s). We are going to use that to get him some minutes, he should at least be in the thoughts for Monday’s squad.”

Andre Gomes has come back into the reckoning in recent weeks, and played the full game against Burnley last weekend.

“It’s been hard for him with all the ups and downs of injury. I told him in the summer he could be an important player for us. He’s been so unlucky, he delivered a very good physical performance [vs Burnley] considering he hadn’t played so long. We know he has quality and he’s put himself right back in the frame for what we need going forward.”