Match Summary

James Beattie: starts on the bench

James Beattie started on the bench, along with Per Krøldrup, with Simon Davies fit again on the return to his old club, Leon Osman dropping to the bench. 

Spurs started with confidence, moving the ball around nicely without causing too many concerns although there were some panics on their first corner.

Cahill was penalized for a free-kick after not fouling Lennon but Carrick did little with it, fortunately for Everton.

Everton then sculptured a reasonable move down the left but a poor chance for Bent was fired well wide.  McFadden had a good effort well saved by Robinson, after the Scot had danced through two defenders.

Martyn had to save well from a point-blank Dawson header as the game livened up on 20 mins.  Dermot Gallagher kept favouring Spurs with his free-kick decisions and another dangerous one was picked out of the air well by Robinson.

Spurs felt they should have had a penalty when Lee Young-pyo crumpled under pressure from Ferrari but Gallagher this time decided in Everton's favour, but an ensuing corner met well by Dawson had to be cleared off the line by Valente.

Everton returned in kind at the other end, with another chance for McFadden.  Spurs attacked strongly with some excellent link play but a poor pass by Carrick saved Everton.  Lennon then followed that with more good play threatening Martyn's goal but they held firm to the break, both sides having played some good football in an entertaining first half.

Everton started the second half well, working hard to build some promising moves to expose the Spurs defence but again lacking the killer touch. 

But a sloppy ball from Yobo, led directly to a goal for Spurs, Everton's 700th conceded in the Premiership, the cross whipped in by Jenas and Nido rose well to head home.  Ho-hum.  Script unchanged...

Defoe crossed nicely for Jenas to nod home the second before David Moyes could get his act together and figure out on making a change.  Ferguson came on and almost his first touch was a fabulous header from a corner that Robinson tipped over superbly.  More pressure almost got Cahill in as Everton responded strongly to the impossible challenge.

But from open play, it was back to Route One hoof-balls that Ferguson could do little with.  On one attack, Davies got forward well and crossed to Ferguson but his lay-off was pointless because there was no other blue shirt in sight.  On came Beattie and then Osman, While Spurs brought in Robbie Keane, who invariably scores against Everton.

Beattie had a fairly good chance that he headed wide as Everton failed once again to come home with anything from White Hart Lane, and equalled a most embarrassing record: six consecutive league defeats; six consecutive league games without scoring.  1951 was the last time and that was the worst-ever run in Everton's famous history. 

Ominously, 1951 was the last time Everton were relegated...

Michael Kenrick

Match Preview

Fully refreshed after a welcome break for the marvelously exciting finalé to the World Cup Qualifiers, we return to the best league in the world and a mouth-watering clash of the Titans — two clubs that share some fantastic honours in highest echelons of the game, who do battle with the passion and commitment of hardened warriors that know every point is important.

The Everton players will definitely be up for this one, ready to prove once and for all that the Premiership table really is upside-down.  Although nine of them were away for much of the last two weeks, doing their bit for their countries, the rest of the squad will have enjoyed the privilege of spending quality time with David Moyes, who has no need to prove that he is one of the best young managers in the business.  Honoured by his fellow league managers last season with their highest accolade, David Moyes secured a fantastic 4th-place finish that carried Everton proudly into Europe fro the first time in 10 years. 

Everton and Spurs both stand on the brink of having conceded the fantastic total of 700 Premiership goals: who will be first to attain that new record?  These also are two of the clubs with the proudest of histories and traditions in the game, and both are among the highest-spending clubs in the Premiership based on star acquisitions over the summer months. 

There would be a lot more of that talent on display, but for the small problem of injuries, which are currently preventing some of those much anticipated Everton transfer from showing the fans what they can do in a Blue shirt:

• Andy van der Meyde: A great prospect from Inter Milan, who is now just a few weeks away from making his long-awaited debut for Everton.
   
• Per Krøldrup: A defender with a fantastic reputation who has already been blooded in the hurly-burly of the reserves, and is now coming along nicely in his carefully paced recovery from a minor groin operation, and will soon be showing us what he can do in Everton's stalwart back four.
   
• Gary Naysmith: Rewarded for his hard-working no-nonsense approach to the game under David Moyes's guidance, Gary Naysmith is another one of those who weathered contract uncertainty last season to secure an extension, and will be keen to sort out the niggling ankle probelm that his kept him sidelined so far this season.
   
• Alessandro Pistone: Overjoyed to be re-signed by David Moyes, and back on Merseyside where he really wants to be, Sandro is unfortunately out of action for quite a while with a damaged knee, and may not get the chance to strut his stuff again this season.
   
• Mikel Arteta: It was horrifying to see him writhing on the pitch after being poleaxed by that Romanian brute, but he recovered very quickly and was declared "fine" the next day.  So it is merely a precautionary measure that now, two weeks later, the doctors are still being super-protective of our great young Spanish star.  Get well soon, Mikey
   
• James Beattie: Our joint highest scorer this season (actually our leading scorer if you count Reserves games), BT is chomping at the bit to regain his full fitness and match sharpness that will have him banging in the goals in no time — just like he once did for Southampton.  We can't wait!
   
• Lee Carsley: Problems with his knee have kept Lee Carsley out of our thoughts and out of the team now for quite a few weeks, but won't it be great when he can get back to that vital holding role in front of the back four.  Not long now!
   
• Li Tie: It seems a really long time since we last saw our Chinese star doing his stuff in a blue shirt but having turned out for China this week, perhaps he is now ready for a massive return to the senior game.  It's just a question of mind over matter.
   
• Jamie Vaughan: losing our young star was a crushing blow; he seemed to be right on the verge of greatness, but now we will have to wait a few more weeks before we see him providing some more options for us up front.

Everton have everything to play for: a clear four-goal victory (coupled with other results going our way) could see us leap up the table as high as 14th by Saturday night.  And if we keep it down to just one goal against, we can claim that incredible 700 goals conceded record.  How great would that be?  COYB!

James Hanlon

Matchday Stats

Sunday sees the 149th match between Everton and Tottenham and the 73rd at White Hart Lane.  The 27th match in the Premier League between the sides, sees Everton trying to obtain their first away win in the competition against Tottenham at the 14th attempt.

Everton's full record against Spurs is:

Our record away to Tottenham is:

There have been 6 Everton hat-tricks against Tottenham Hotspur (all scored by different players) with the last one being scored by Tony Cottee in a 3-1 win at Goodison Park on 5 October 1991.  Joe Clennell and Jimmy Harris are the only two hat-trick scorers to do so at White Hart Lane.  Clennel’s goals came in a 3-1 win on 2 September 1914, with Harris being one of only two Everton players to score hat-tricks whilst being on the losing side.  Harris’ hat-trick came in the infamous 10-4 defeat on 11 October 1958, which still remains a post-war league record for the highest aggregate score in a match.

The most common victory for Everton is 1-0 which has happened 16 times in Everton's 49 victories.  Spurs’ most common victory over Everton is 2-1, which has happened 13 times in their 54 victories. The most common draw between the sides is 1-1, which has happened 23 times in the 45 draws between the sides.

Everton's record for 15 October is:

This is the first time the clubs have met on this day.  The last Premier League match was in 1994, when Mike Walker’s sweeper experiment failed miserably as Coventry City ran out easy 2-0 winners at Goodison Park.  The last away match was, ironically, also against Coventry City as Howard Kendall’s relegation battle side lost 4-1 at Coventry in the League Cup.

118 years ago today, Everton played their first match I a major competition as they lost 1-0 to Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup tie that would drag on and eventually see Everton disqualified for ‘vieled professionalism’.  Although Everton lost this match, they appealed against the eligibility of Bolton’s forward Struthers and the game was ordered to be replayed eventually.

Jimmy Husband was born on this day in 1947 in Newcastle.  Signing professional forms in October 1964, and then winning an FA Youth Cup medal in 1965, Jimmy went on to make 199 appearances for Everton whilst scoring 55 goals, before moving to Luton Town in November 1973.  Apparently he returned to Everton FC (a Bedfordshire amateur side) in 1984 for one season.

Alex Nyarko was also born on this day in 1973 in Accra, Ghana.  Signed from Lens for £4.5m in August 2000, Alex was basically a flop at Everton, somehow making 38 appearances whilst scoring a goal, ironically, against Tottenham at White Hart Lane!  After one of the longest loan periods in the game (almost 2 years at Monaco), Alex finally left Everton in May 2004 when his work permit wasn’t renewed.

TG Jones was in the Welsh side that lost 4-1 to England on this day in 1949 in a World Cup qualifier.

Dave Watson played for England on this day in 1986 in a 3-0 European Championship qualifier win over Northern Ireland.

On the same day Kevin Sheedy appeared for Ireland against Scotland, with Graeme Sharp in the Scottish side, with the sides drawing 0-0.

Tomasz Radzinski was in the Canadian side that lost 3-1 against Scotland on this day in 2002, with Scott Gemmill appearing as a substitute for Scotland.

Sam Ashworth appeared for the Football League in their 2-0 victory over the Irish League on this day in 1904.

Milestones for this match:

·          If Everton win, then this will be their 50th victory against Tottenham Hotspur in all competitions.

·          Also, if Everton win, David Moyes will have won 50 matches in the Premier League as Everton manager, in what will be his 150th match as manager.

·          If he plays, Tim Cahill will be making his 50th appearance for Everton in all competitions.

Steve Flanagan

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