Everton face Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City in consecutive matches over Christmas

Everton face a pivotal December which will see the club have to deal with one of the toughest festive programmes the schedule could have thrown up.

Sean Dyche will lead the Blues into six games in 26 games that will include the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. The month starts off with the club hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers before the visit of Liverpool is followed by a trip to Arsenal, a home game with Chelsea and then the journey to Manchester City that is currently scheduled for Boxing Day. The month will end in L4 with Nottingham Forest due at Goodison on December 29.

The calendar makes for an intriguing month in which Dyche will have to rely on his squad to pull through a hectic festive schedule similar to the one that he criticised last year as games were loaded into December before a relatively quiet January.