Spurs v Everton Preview: five areas to analyse

After varying results in the FA Cup during the week, Spurs and Everton are the last fixture in this game week’s Premier League action as they play on Monday night.

Spurs will be looking to bounce back after a disastrous trip to Middlesbrough which knocked them out of the FA Cup, while Everton huffed and puffed to beat non-league Boreham Wood but will be the happier as they advanced into the Quarter-Finals.

Also Everton will have more options to change their team as players come back from injury and the cup tied players will of course be available again.

Back in early November the return fixture at Goodison Park was Antonio Conte’s first Premier League game in charge and of course Rafa Benitez was in the Everton dugout.

In the main this game was dire bar one controversial incident where the referee Chris Kavanagh, who was also in the VAR seat for last week’s handball controversary against Manchester City, overturned his original decision after viewing the screen when Richarlison had been sent crashing to the ground by Hugo Lloris’ dive at his feet.

After initially giving a penalty, VAR suggested Kavanagh should have another look and he overturned it despite it not looking clear and obvious to do so.

This goalless game had little else going for it, a late Giovanni Le Celso shot hit the post for Spurs and while being the better side, Everton struggled to make too many clear cut opportunities.

Since then the teams have gone in opposite directions as Everton had an awful run of form after this game and ultimately led to Benitez’s sacking, while Spurs got going under Conte and were challenging fourth place until a recent blip in consistency has seen them fall behind but still in reach of a top four place.

Everton’s away form has been dire since the first month of the season which witnessed their only league away win of the season at Brighton, while draws at Manchester United, Chelsea and Leeds have been good, the rest of the performances have been quite abysmal.

In this article we will look at Spurs’ recent form and tactics they will likely to employ, what will Lampard do to try to arrest Everton’s shocking away displays, the midfield is key for the Toffees going forward and would it be better to leave Dominic Calvert-Lewin out of this game.