On Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur travel to Everton with both clubs nursing recent Premier League defeats. Spurs are also reeling from an unsuccessful UEFA Champions League away encounter in southern France versus AS Monaco FC. The fixture calendar once again is in Everton’s favor, offering up domestic Premier League home opponents straight off the back of European excursions.
While the UEFA Champions League game does give some indication of what to expect from Spurs come Sunday, their last Premier League defeat, the Aston Villa 1-v-2 comeback win, has much more for Everton to reference.
Tottenham have some decent players, and they certainly have a decent manager, even if Thomas Frank is a little inexperienced with the domestic and European football balance. The Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday schedule is new for Frank and still novel for the club. How Spurs cope with this dilemma this time around is of massive benefit to Everton, especially with another game at the new home.
The Spurs offensive setup versus Villa was very underwhelming. Typically starting with a 4-2-3-1 system of play, the three behind the one in the attacking lines for Spurs is very limited. Villa were able to give up the first advantage and still come through, taking three away points. Spurs couldn’t score themselves out of trouble.
While Mohammed Kudus is a threat with his direct speed and trickery, the supporting staff can be optimistically shut down. Wilson Odobert is young and has promise; perhaps he will flourish into an excellent player at Spurs, but today is toothless and unthreatening. Despite this, he has featured heavily for Tottenham recently. However, come Sunday, Odobert’s past Premier League performances will not be of major concern.
More than likely, Odobert will operate from the left wing; Everton’s right full-back selection will be interesting to counter this problem. Is it time to change the unsettled Jake O'Brien and repurpose him at home in the center of defense? Does James Garner take the right full-back berth? He has done it successfully before. Or is it possible for 37-year-old club captain Séamus Coleman to start his first Premier League game?
David Moyes is typically stoic in his team selections, stoic in his substitution patterns, and he is generally resistant to blowing up the regular XI in favor of revolution. The better option is to move Jake O'Brien centrally and insert James Garner in his vacated right back place, but somehow that just doesn’t seem very Moyesy.
Xavi Simons is a recent Tottenham Hotspur acquisition, expensively recruited from German club RB Leipzig, astonishingly for a fee of $50Million or more. Simons has always been followed by a loud and positive reputation; he’s played at big clubs, he’s played for the Dutch national team, and he has had millions spent on his transfers. And that trend continues with Spurs in the Premier League. However, despite being lauded as an attacking threat, constantly being played in flair positions, and bizarrely being trusted to contribute to the attack, Simons brings very little. He’s done nothing.
Simons is only 22 years old but has been around for a very long time. And he probably has not been helped by some early overexposure as a Barcelona youth academy player. But ever since, he has never quite settled, despite playing at some of European football’s glamor clubs. Maybe Tottenham Hotspur will be the making of the man, but based on this current version of the player, there should be nothing much for Everton to worry about here. Correct defensive midfield screening can eliminate the Xavi Simons ‘Playmaker #10’ mystery effect.
The Tottenham Hotspur #9 Center Forward role is proving to be a problem for them, and so a potential positive for us. None of the Spurs striker options are exactly on form or on fire.
Mathys Tel started the Villa defeat. Tel is another young prospect who promises much but has so far delivered nothing. He is welcome to play against Everton on Sunday.
Everton legend Richarlison is Tottenham’s top scorer so far this season, but he is also a frequent substitute for whichever selected misfiring starter. Richarlison was picked to start for the European game versus Monaco, but he was taken off with twenty minutes left without scoring.
Recent recruit but mostly injured and mostly untrustworthy, Randal Kolo Muani is a #9 option for Spurs. However, he was only gifted with a cameo appearance without effect in the Wednesday Champions League game with no goals scored.
Wales national team forward Brennan Johnson has scored goals for Tottenham, but he seems out of favor, at least to start recent games. Another Wednesday substitute who didn’t score.
And often injured, currently injured, Dominic Solanke has never been great for Tottenham despite the huge transfer fee. He is very unlikely to trouble Everton on Sunday.
So, Tottenham Hotspur has attacking options, but none of them are any good. If Everton can find some of the returned defensive stability that was such a signature of last season’s good times, then there is definitely a pathway to opportunity. Some previously referenced rejigging of the starting team might help.
If we can stop them scoring and we can get a goal ourselves, I predict a magnificent Everton home win. We’ll see you on Sunday, Spurs.