The Toffees ran out 3-0 winners in their last outing against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park and Lampard expressed his happiness at finally getting a fully fit squad to choose from.

 

Up next for Everton is a trip to Craven Cottage to face promoted Fulham, who are currently situated in seventh place in the Premier League table, two points ahead of their Merseyside rivals Liverpool.

 

 

Lampard touched on the importance of having a fighting fit squad to choose from and is happy that Patterson has returned from his injury layoff.

 

The 44-year-old tactician happily pointed to the wonderful selection headache posed him by Patterson’s return from injury, alongside veteran Seamus Coleman’s performance against the Eagles at the last time of asking.

 

 

Lampard believes that Patterson was enjoying a good season until his injury and that allowed Coleman to come back into the squad, culminating in him keeping Wilfried Zaha quiet during the Crystal Palace clash.

 

“Patterson’s back in the squad for this weekend. Dominic [Calvert-Lewin] showed his fitness levels last weekend.

 

“We haven’t really had too many periods with a clean bill of health”, Lampard said in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Fulham clash at the weekend.

 

 

“Most teams don’t, probably, but at times we’ve had multiple important players out in the team so trying to get consistency in selection and form, fitness is a crucial thing, so there are some positive signs there and long may that continue and it keeps us with a healthy competition within the squad when people are fit and firing.

 

“[It’s] a really good [selection] headache [at right-back], it’s exactly what I wanted and Nathan Patterson has been really, really good this season until he got his unfortunate injury.

 

“And it’s allowed Seamus [Coleman] to come in and find fitness and performance.

 

“That peaked, I think, last week against Palace, against Zaha, one of the hardest players to play against in that position.

 

“It’s really healthy competition between two lads, one who has been here a long time and one who is coming through, and they get on really well, so I’m more than happy with that.”

 

Everton ended a run of three consecutive losses against Crystal Palace and will be hoping to claim three points against the Cottagers.