Everton vs Tottenham
Date: 09/09/2017
K.O: 15:00pm
Everton welcome Tottenham to Goodison Park for this mouth watering early season clash at Goodison Park.
This time last year, the same clash saw a hard fought draw but this year we see a very different Everton. Last year’s team was very much the residue of ex-manager, Roberto Martinez’s set-up but this year we see Koeman’s vision take to the field. Morgan Schneiderlin returns from a ban to play against his former manager, Mauricio Pochettino, while Klaassen and Pickford have both been declared fit.
Tottenham look good despite their injury problems and seem set to feature their two new signings, Llorente from Swansea and Augier formerly of Paris St. Germain while the Everton boss has declared, much to many people’s surprise that striker Oumar Niasse may figure in the first team set-up after his last minute transfer-window deal fell through.
Ronald Koeman is very much an admirer of Pochettino’s work at Tottenham and it has been said that he hopes to follow the Tottenham model when building his own team with their hard work and championing of young players; however, one question needs to be asked, ‘Is it too soon for so many new players to gel as a team?’ The answer may well be that Tottenham are a couple of rungs higher up the ladder than Everton and this may be evidenced tomorrow.
It also remains to be seen if the recent Wayne Rooney shenanigans and the behind the scenes unrest with Ross Barkley has any effect on the Blues’ performance.
Tottenham are keen to put their relatively poor performance against Burnley behind them and will see this as a place where they can take three away points to redeem their start to the season and indeed, players like Harry Kane in search of his 100th goal for the club and Dele Alli may prove too much for the newly formed Everton team with their series of new signings including Nikola Vlasic.
Most media pundits seem to predicting a 1-1 draw or Tottenham away win, but many Evertonians are asking if Niasse will turn out to be a new Goodison hero as he gets his second chance to come good.
Written by Dom Holt.
