Everton’s status as one of the EPL’s draw specialists was maintained over the Christmas period by their draw at bottom club West Ham this week.

It was not the hoped-for follow-up to the previous week’s 2-1 victory at big-spending Manchester City which prevented City from topping the EPL table going into the festive season.

But Everton are hopeful that the return from injury of England international defender Phil Jagielka for this Saturday’s visit to Stoke City will provide the team with a necessary boost.

Everton lie 11^th in the EPL, above city rivals Liverpool on goal difference but only three points above the bottom three.

 

The injury-prone 28-year-old Jagielka limped out of the later stages of the City victory with a thigh strain.

And it is hoped that he will be fit after the extra rest because of the postponement of the Toffees’ Boxing Day clash with Birmingham.

Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga is still out with a knee problem, so veteran Phil Neville or Tony Hibbert may have to play as an emergency centre-back against Tony Pulis’s ‘direct’ team.

Young Irish starlet Seamus Coleman nodded home Everton’s equaliser at Upton Park, clinching the side’s 10^th draw of the season.

But he insisted that the Toffees “need to start turning those draws into wins” if they are to climb the EPL table.

He cited the West Ham game as an example, saying: “Their keeper Robert Green was man of the match, so it shows that we should have got three points.”