Sunday Football Tips: Dine out on Doucoure

“Doucoure has managed 2+ shots in five of his seven Premier League games so far.”

Everton v West Ham
Sunday 17 October, 14:00
Live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event

Abdoulaye Doucoure is a player who has undoubtedly benefitted from Rafael Benitez’s arrival at Everton this summer.

The Spaniard’s tactical plan has involved getting the ball forward quickly, particularly to their wide men, but he’s also asked Doucoure to play in a more advanced role, pushing forward as the midfield runner from deep.

That’s reflected in his shots stats – he’s managed 2+ in five of his seven Premier League games so far.

With Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison still ruled out for the Toffees, Everton will need contributions from elsewhere in terms of goal threat and Doucoure, who has scored in two of his three home games so far, looks capable of providing them.

6/4 about him hitting 2+ shots again looks a strong bet on its own but I’m going to combine it with the Frenchman also picking up a card.

Doucoure has done that three times already this season and his increased box-to-box role arguably raises the chances of him troubling the referee as he can get caught on the wrong side of the ball when a side breaks – and West Ham are pretty good at that.

The official in question here is also a good one, namely Stuart Attwell.

Admittedly his card figures aren’t great this season but it’s very early days and I prefer to look at his long-term numbers – Attwell had the highest cards-per-game average in 2019/20 and the second-highest last season.

Attwell booked Doucoure in one of their two league encounters last term, while he’s been pretty hard on Everton in recent times – in six of his last seven Everton league games, Attwell has shown the Toffees at least three cards.

The two-legged Bet Builder pays just over 9/1.

Click here for Steven Rawlings’ in-depth preview of Everton v West Ham