Head to Head

This is the 53rd visit by Stoke City in the league and the 106th league meeting in total, our full record is:

	P	W	D	L
Home	52	34	11	7
Away	53	17	16	20
Total	105	51	27	27

The Toffees will be hoping to complete a league double over Stoke; it would be the third of the campaign following other home and away victories against Bolton and West Bromwich Albion.

Everton won 3-2 at the Britannia Stadium in September thanks to goals from Yakubu, Victor Anichebe and Tim Cahill - thus far the only Premier League meeting ever between the sides.

Saturday is the first league meeting at Goodison since November 1984, when Everton - then top of the table - were 4-0 victors. The Blues have won seven and drawn one of the past eight meetings between the teams in all competitions.

Stoke's last victory over the Toffees was 1-0 on Boxing Day 1982 with their last Goodison win coming in April 1981, when future Blue Adrian Heath scored the only goal. That remains Stoke's only triumph at Goodison in the past 17 visits going back to 1966.

The managers

David Moyes' managerial record against Stoke City is:

	P	W	D	L
Preston	4	2	0	2
Everton	1	1	0	0
Total	5	3	0	2

This is the sixth meeting between David Moyes and Tony Pulis as managers - the Everton boss leads 2-1 on the head-to-head record with two draws.

The goals

There have been six hat-tricks in matches between the sides, with the only one in the post-War era coming from Dave Hickson at Stoke in November 1953. The Toffees' last Goodison treble was the four goals netted by Jimmy Cunliffe in November 1935.

Stoke's only hat-trick in the fixture was netted by Alf Edge in the FA Cup in the Potteries as far back as February 1890 - no Stoke player has scored a hat-trick against Everton either in the league or at Goodison.

Stoke's Henri Camara has scored league goals against Everton for Wolves, Southampton and Wigan (in November 2008). Should the on-loan striker add to that total on Saturday he would become the fourth player to score against Everton in the Premier League for four different clubs - joining Les Ferdinand, Nicholas Anelka and Dwight Yorke.

Tim Cahill has three career goals against Stoke - two for Millwall and one for Everton.

James Beattie should be returning to Goodison on Saturday, the striker having scored five goals in his first seven league matches for the Potteries' club, which compares favourably with five goals in his first 27 league games at Everton.

The players

Everton have not had a player dismissed in the fixture with Stoke having two: the most recent being George Berry at the Victoria Ground on Boxing Day 1982, with the first being goalkeeper Arthur Evans in November 1892, noteworthy as the first ever sending-off at Goodison Park.

It will be Joleon Lescott's 100th league start for the Toffees should the defender begin Saturday's game.

Tim Howard is aiming to set a new club record for keeping clean sheets in the Premier League: the American international requires four shut-outs from the final 10 league matches to break Neville Southall's 13-year record of 15 clean sheets in one campaign.

General

Everton are unbeaten in their last nine home matches in all competitions - with seven wins and two draws.

The Toffees have kept clean sheets in the past four league matches.

Everton have lost just one of their last 17 outings in all competitions since the beginning of December, and have conceded just six goals in those games - Manchester United (1), Liverpool (2), Aston Villa (1), Arsenal (1) Middlesbrough (1).

Everton have not conceded a goal in the last nine league matches against sides currently below them in the Premier League table, the most recent being scored by Henri Camara at Wigan in November.

This Saturday marks David Moyes' seventh anniversary of being appointed Everton manager. His record since joining the club in all competitions is P318 W134 D75 L109.

Joseph Yobo (228) has played in the most matches under the Blues' boss while Tim Cahill (45) has scored the most goals.