Everton have been dealt another injury blow to their season. Loanee Marco Van Ginkel has been ruled for up to 4 months. The Dutch midfielder pulled out of training this morning after complaining of some discomfort on his right ankle.

After spending the morning with the Everton medical team, it was later confirmed to BBC Sport that Van Ginkel was suffering with a damaged Achilles tendon. Van Ginkel will be added to Everton’s injury list that already consist of new signing Nemanja Gudejl who is set to return to training shortly, attacking midfielder Patrick Roberts and left back Bryan Oviedo.

Both Van Ginkel and Everton will be hoping for a smooth and swift recovery as Van Ginkel was thought to be high up in the plans of boss Zinedine Zidane.

What a fantastic month for us, we have been excellent this month and the football has been on another planet at time. A solid start by demolishing Newcastle, I was very happy to have four different scorers too, you don’t see that very often. Newcastle never got out playing in all honesty and we controlled the game very well.

West Brom made it difficult for us, I have seen this happen a few times now in our away games. Teams will defend deep and stop us playing. It’s horrible and frustrating to watch, it’s not how football should be played.

Then came the game the fans have been eagerly anticipating. We welcomed a strong Bayern side to Goodison Park. These are the nights the players work for, the likes of Neuer, Robben, Gotze, Schweingstiger all started for Bayern. The lads did not let this phase them, we were excellent from start to finish. It was not a smash and grab victory, we deserved everything from this game.

This filled the team with an incredible amount of confidence. It showed when just days later, a well organised Southampton travelled to Merseyside. We were very strong throughout the game, despite going a goal down. We recovered well to take all three points. We followed this victory up with another strong victory away to Stoke. I am very pleased with the winning mentality at the moment. We have various match winners in the squad, everyone is chipping in with the goals too. This has been a real team effort from us.

I could not pick a winner for the player of the month for October, I had so many options. Jagielka, Stones and Balanta have all featured and been crucial to our success this month. Ross and Aiden have been great to watch going forward, providing us with real quality. I felt it would not be fair of me to award an individual after such a great team performance in all of our games.

Awesome update, doing well in league and champions league. How is Barry doing overall?

Thanks he's one of those you know what your going to get, very consistent

Great month! All the stars coming out to play v Newcastle

P-Kiddy, things are starting to click

Nobody would have tipped us to qualify from our Champions’ League group, I made the lads fully aware of this. I knew it would spur them on more. We saw it as extra incentive. We all know how strong Bayern are, especially at home. This was no exception, they made it very hard for us. However we never gave up and we showed our true determination to get the point. Another great result for us against a world class eleven.

From this we went on to secure two solid victories in the Premier League. We have handled balancing all of our competitions much better this time around I believe. We played some very good football against both Swansea and Millwall. Millwall proved a stern test for us, they defended very deep and rarely got out of their half. We had to work hard to break them down.

We returned to Champions League action with an absolute goal fest. It was madness, I was slightly frustrated that we managed to concede three goals at home. On the other hand the boys did well to manage the occasion and secure all three points to help us push for qualification. Romelu was fantastic in this game and showed his true striking qualities.

The United game was a tough and very close game. Robin Van Persie led the United attack and grabbed a goal early on. From here on his the young United team made it tough for us, it some ways we were fortunate to grab the late equaliser. Although I will defiantly take it, sometimes we just have to have that slice of luck.

The busy schedule saw a swift return to Champions League football, we travelled to Portugal knowing that a victory would see us top our group. A great achievement in its self, also meaning we would miss teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona in the next round. We had to defend a lot during this game, the hostile environment made it tough for us. Bayern and Porto still had to it all to play for. Never the less we got on with our duties, we did what was needed of us. I was very pleased with that. Despite a late goal for either side, we took all three points. Nobody would have seen this coming.



I chose not to award anyone last month, again this month everyone has been fantastic. However I cannot ignore the efforts of Romelu Lukaku. He has scored five goals for us. His goals have really driven us through the month, it gives confidence to the rest of the team when we score more goals and he is a great character. He is defiantly fulfilling his potential.

Look at that CL Group! Awesome stuff, man. Things looking very rosy

wow going so strong, Nice one!

P-Kiddy & Denzy - thanks guys, its looking good indeed

Another solid month! Looks like you're getting them together now!

Great job so far and a great story keep it up

510 - everything is fitting into place

wellsy - thanks mate

UEFA have now confirmed to us that the draw for the Champions League first knock out round has been drawn and completed. We have received news of the results and they are as followed;


Some very tasty looking matches for sure. A number of big teams are sure to fall at the first hurdle, thanks to the games such as Man Utd vs Real Madrid, Bayern vs Arsenal and PSG vs Barcelona. Something will have to give between all of the teams that’s for sure. It looks set to be another cracking year in the Champions League.