After the disappointment of a double Cup exit in the space of 74 hours, Fulham have an almost immediate opportunity to put things right when they welcome Everton to Craven Cottage this evening. Amidst all the apathy and rancour of the club’s pricegouging that came to the fore in the FA Cup on Saturday night, there is a sense of deflation amongst the fan base that Fulham’s campaign – which until a week ago carried plenty of promise in the cup competitions – could peter out. Marco Silva was having none of it during his media duties yesterday and you can be certain that will want to beat the Toffees as the memory of being sacked at Goodison Park was what persuaded him to succeed Scott Parker in SW6 three years ago.

Silva’s ambition to finish the season strong – and potentially rival last term’s top half finish – is somewhat undermined by the threadbare nature of his first-team squad. He will pick from nineteen fully-fit senior players this evening and admitted that his side are feeling the impact of Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey, who inspired Nigeria to reach the last eight of the Africa Cup of Nations, being on international duty in the Ivory Coast. The lack of a reliable alternative to Raul Jimenez remains an issue, as evidenced by Fulham’s failure to make their dominance count against Newcastle at the weekend. The transfer window would seem to provide a remedy, but Silva has been downbeat about the prospect of making a significant splash based on his conversations with the club’s board.

Of course, the fact that Fulham are comfortably anchored in the middle of the table and reached the League Cup semi-final with a squad that was afflicted by summer uncertainty surrounding several key players and the head coach underlines how well Silva has done with the resources at his disposal. The Whites might have struggled for consistency but they have managed four of their past five home league games – with the four-match winless run largely comprising of those missed opportunities in the two leagues against Liverpool and Saturday’s reverse to Newcastle, where the hosts were well in the contest until all hope was extinguished by Dan Burn.

After Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s burglary on Merseyside on the opening day, Fulham are in with a chance of completing their first league double over the Toffees at the thirtieth time of asking. Silva should revert to something like full strength having made seven changes on Saturday with this fixture and the trip to Burnley on Saturday in mind. Harry Wilson’s shoulder injury is a significant blow given how the Welshman worried Liverpool off the bench on Wednesday and it is a blow that this game probably comes too soon for Adama Traore, although this correspondent can confirm that the Spaniard was moving much more freely at Motspur Park on Sunday.

Sean Dyche’s side, beaten by a late Cauley Woodrow winner at the weekend, seem to have lost their way of late – sitting a single place and point above Luton, who have played a game less, and will take confidence from their Cup triumph at Goodison Park. Everton are sorely missing top scorer Abdoulaye Doucouré, whilst the loss of Idrissa Gueye to international commitments and Andre Gomes to an untimely calf injury, has blunted some of the midfield creativity that delivered an upturn in form before the turn of the year.

Dyche will likely be without experienced full backs Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young this evening and his pairing of Beto with Dominic Calvert-Lewin hardly troubled the Hatters in the Cup. Calvert-Lewin remains Everton’s most likely source of goals, but a switch in system could see the likes of Arjun Danjuma, Jack Harrison and Dwight McNeil provide him with the sort of service upon which he once thrived so successfully under Carlo Ancelotti.

Starting at a high tempo will be vital this evening. Tom Cairney’s distribution will be more important than ever, but it will be interesting to see if the skipper starts in the deep-lying central midfield role he has made his own or could be pushed further forward in place of Andreas Pereira.

MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Diop, Adarabioyo; Palhinha, Reed; De Cordova-Reid, Willian, Cairney, Jimenez. Subs: Rodak, Castagne, Ream, de Fougerolles, Francois, Lukic, Vinicius, Muniz.