While Everton boss Sean Dyche may have been pleased to secure a draw against Fulham, it wasn’t enough to stop the Toffees sliding into the relegation zone after Luton’s thumping win over Brighton. Rather concerningly, it’s now five Premier League games without a win (D2, L3), and having failed to score in each of the last three of those, improvements are quickly needed at Goodison Park.
Up next are a Tottenham side Everton rarely enjoying coming up against. The Blues have won just one of the last 22 league meetings (D10, L11), and that came on the road back in September 2020. They produced a strong showing in the reverse back in December though, posting more shots and a higher xG than their hosts in a 2-1 loss. But they again left themselves with too much of a mountain to climb after going down 2-0 early on, which wasn’t a great surprise given Everton have failed to score first in each of the last seven H2Hs.
Spurs are also in the midst of a frustrating run of allowing their opponents to draw first blood, with Neal Maupay’s opener for Brentford on Wednesday the third successive occasion their opponents had netted first in the match. However, Ange Postecoglou’s men battled back to win 3-2 and extend their recent run to just one defeat in five competitive matches (W3, D1).
The win saw the London side climb into the top-four, but with closest rivals Aston Villa set to face bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United in the evening kick-off, they know they’ll most likely need another three points here to hold onto their position. Spurs haven’t travelled well of late though, with their last five such matches delivering just one win (D2, L2) despite scoring 2+ goals in each of the last four.
Key battle: Everton and England No.1 Jordan Pickford was in fine form against Fulham as he made six saves to help secure a league-high eighth clean sheet of the season. He’ll face former teammate Richarlison who has now scored seven goals in his past seven Spurs league appearances, one more than he managed in his previous 47 top-flight outings.
Hot stat: No Premier League team has scored more goals in the 15 minutes immediately after half-time than Tottenham (11).
