Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur

Looking at Lyndon's proposed team I think Godfrey deserves to keep his place at right back and give Coleman more time to recover.

I did originally think we should give Dobbin a start over Young, however, with Maddison back and Spurs so strong in midfield probably Young put in midfield in a 4-5-1 would be a better choice

The player in me talking now. If you don't believe you can win, don't walk on the pitch.

Tough times, but like many, I've been up against the odds on many occasions. You don't shy away from the challenges, you face them and figure our a way to adapt and overcome.

The players have to show belief because it will be coming down from the stands if they show it.

We done well against Fulham. Take that forward and just finish those chances that we are creating!!

The bigger battle will be decided today, but 3 points gained tomorrow and 10 points back on Monday and we're all but safe from relegation.

I've got a good feeling about tomorrow, Spurs play a dangerous game with a high line and we're obviously much better at playing like the away team anyway.

Dominic to end his drought and the Blues to win by a couple.

Although I don't go to away games, it sounded a better performance. All I ever ask, is the players to fight for everything. As fans, we give our support every match. And beyond.

We are dealing with some rubbish from the Premier League at the moment. But Saturday, we all go again.

The draw against Fulham will give heart and returning players should help. The return to form of Godfrey is also a help to his confidence and to the team. Defensively Everton are a lot more settled.

A game that we can win as Spurs will suit us a lot better than Luton did.

Last 38 fixtures:
Brighton - 49 points
Everton (without the 10 point deduction) - 51 points

May not be as attractive football as the Seagulls but seems to be more effective in getting points. De Zebri v Dyche is another Martinez v Moyes comparison.

Spurs are not great. However, they can be quick and have some skill. Richarlison I fear the most.

Maybe if we paint our end in Yellow and Black caution stripes with a huge red arrow nailed onto each post and the bar (pointing inwards) Calvert-Lewin might get one. Just a thought… 🤷🏻

I know l often revert back, but as as a youngster who had nothing to cling to in those dark days of December 1983, I never for once stopped believing we could turn it around.

We turned it around then and we can now.

As has been said, once we turn around the injustice, we are sat comfortably mid table.

In times of crisis, you can only focus and fight on what is in front of you.

Son usually runs us ragid, so of he's not playing, that's a bonus. But Spurs are playing well and it will take a big performance to get points from this, but we can do it if we are aggressive. We can't sit back, they will just tire us out with their movement.

The predicted team doesn't look too bad, providing Coleman and Gueye put in decent performances and McNeil and Calvert-Lewin can get back to good form.

Gueye was in excellent form before his injury and then flying off to play for Senegal.

I feel for Calvert-Lewin. Perfect goal scrubbed off away to Spurs for no reason. If that goal had counted, it would have been a boost to his confidence at just the right time, and then of course, he was sent off for a perfect tackle.

But here we go again with Michael 'I hate Everton' Oliver the ref and Atwell the VAR, playing a Corrupt 6 club!

COYB!

Can we at least benefit please from fair officials and VARs? It would certainly help!

Think of brighter days, like back in 1995 when, on an early Sunday afternoon in Yorkshire, we turned them over to reach the FA Cup Final.

My happiest day at a game and I am just so sad that those who are in their early 30s have never experienced such a day since. It was our best performance over the last 29 years.

PSR penalises certain clubs and not others and I therefore fear for the rest of the season for the Blues. Injuries, tiredness etc with a depleted squad thanks to the unfair rules in place.

Next season, if they stay up, will be even harder as they have not been able to build sufficiently. The Premier League have made them the league paupers and the future looks bleak for all clubs except for a limited few.

I had to watch the 1995 semi-final from my then home in Cyprus. He was in one of those rocking chairs and I was gently rocking him. When the 4th went in, I inadvertently flipped across the living room. Fortunately he landed on the opposite couch in safety.

We went home for the final but didn't have tickets. We watched it in the Dunlop's club near the Fox in Speke. His first experience of watching Everton win a trophy, but he was only 5 months old so doesn't recall it.

Going to be a tough game especially with Madison back, Calvert-Lewin needs more support and balls into the box from our wingers.

Like Christy, I'd go for Godfrey and Young down the right side, at least at first, with Gueye freeing up Garner to get further forward. Maddison is a good player and will need tight marking, especially if he is back to anything like his best.

Martin @9,

Please be careful about suggesting painting caution stripes and red arrows on the goalposts for Calvert-Lewin. I know you're only joking but such remarks have been known to cause apoplexy amongst some contributors to this site!

Although Harrison is a goal threat he loses the ball too often for me and Spurs are dangerous on the break, especially on that flank, so it's Young and Godfrey or Patterson or Coleman if he is fit enough.

McNeil further forward helps our goal threat so I expect him and Calvert-Lewin to be more lethal in this one.

I just hope all the recent events haven't deflated the supporters and players too much and we are up for this one with a strong pressing game and Goodison in full voice.

COYBB

That fucking divvy unnerves me more than Spurs do. Their style is tailor-made for us, albeit they have far, far better players.

I cannot see Gana or Coleman making much difference but, if they can grab any sort of a goal early, then it just might be enough if we ride our luck on defense.

Almost every team has better scoring potential than Everton, which is why we are floundering, notwithstanding the points deduction.

We really didn't want to meet Spurs under such circumstances but it will take a lot to get the three points.

A lot depends obviously who is fit for us if we are going to get a result.

We don't concede many goals but, on the other hand, we don't score many either, so it's tough to be confident.

Taking my blue-tinted glasses off, I'll take another draw now.

Baffles the mind when I'm told we haven't beaten Spurs at home since that Jelavic injury-time strike in December 2012.

They've hardly been Manchester City standards over the past 12 years while they've had some good sides, we shouldn't be going 12 years without beating any team at Goodison Park.

Time to end that tomorrow.

Now is not the time to voice displeasure – all we want is points to get us safe.

Let's all join together in making the atmosphere as intimidating as possible for Spurs and see if we can energise any tired legs. The time to moan about a poor product can wait.

Considering they have chased Champions League football while we fought the dreaded drop, it's not really that baffling.

If you take into consideration that we have been robbed blind in more than one of these games, it's not even surprising.

A win tomorrow will start swinging these head-to-heads back in our favour.

Spurs will try and kick us off the park and I forecast a tasty encounter.

Richarlison's bound to score against us and it wouldn't surprise me if Werner gets off the mark neither.

We're live on the telly and it's another early kick-off too... both of which usually go against us Blues, so sadly I predict another home defeat.

1-2 Spurs, sigh.

The slight glimmer of hope I have is they played Wednesday.

If we can have 99.9% possession and score 5, we might end up with a 1-0 win!

COYB!

It's beginning to be against most teams now (no wins in 5 games vs Fulham under Silva is an example).

We've suffered enough. Break the unwanted mantra.

However, it is in those circumstances that we can tend to surprise. Fear the worst. Hope for the best.

Seems like a well-driven down-to-earth guy and has built his way up through some hardships.

If we do get a penalty (yeah, right) then it has to be at a meaningful point in the game and not as a late sop to our current absence of awards given when the game is already lost.

There are some who may believe that the corrupt officials will have been told to give us a dodgy one but only at a point where it can not impact the game.

Are you real 1983 was another lifetime ago.

Players could put a tackle in then without fear of this ridiculous VAR pulling them up.

And by the way, we had the makings of a good young side then: Southall, Stevens, Heath, Sharp, and the magician Sheedy, the likes of the vastly underrated Richardson etc.

We had a squad of maybe 14 or 15 regulars, yes, players got injured then but, back then, the only 2 players I remember suffering long-term injuries were Bracewell and Heath – oh and possibly Southall injured in Ireland while on duty for Wales.

Us of a certain vintage can remember them days like they were yesterday but, to the younger generations, it's like our forefathers going on about Dean, Lawton, Sagar etc.

It means nothing to them, the way this embarrassment of a club is run there's not a chance of us turning anything around.

Have we got owners? No. Have we actually got a board? I'm not sure… we've been mismanaged for donkey's years and the only ones suffering are us.

If we don't get at least 6 points back, I reckon we're doomed, there's nothing in this current squad that makes me think "Yes, he's a winner" – not one single player.

A midfield full of show ponies who applaud their own passes and strikers on the books who, if they fell out of a boat, wouldn't hit water.

The 80s were a very long time ago and believe me, Danny, this is a very different game and a very different club.

Today, I got an email from Everton about season ticket renewals for our final season at the Grand Old Lady. I will be 65 years old in March, and thus qualify for a Seniors season ticket for next season. 65 years old… I was fucking 2 when Spurs last won the league, and they consider themselves to be a Top 6 club!

Ok, they may well have qualified for a few seasons in the Champions League, still won fuck all by the way, and they probably do have one of the best stadiums in the country, but it doesn't make them a “Big Club, My Arse”, yet Sky and the BBC go on about them as if they are entitled to be one of the so-called top sides in this country.

Everton Football Club are, and have always been, a far bigger club than Spurs, and the tide will soon be turning when we move down beside the royal blue Mersey, and we will show Spurs, and the rest, what a truly great club we are.

We're not any more – other factors have seen to that.

How anyone can say Spurs aren't bigger than us is ludicrous.

Yes, they've qualified for the Champions League a few times and even got to a final, we qualified and didn't even get into the group stage.

Yes, Collina, blah blah — but Collina didn't ref the 1st leg at home, a game we deservedly lost.

No in these ultra-modern times, Spurs are a well bigger well run and well more of a threat than we are ever likely to be.

But hey, Bill, we've had good times.

Everton will be, are and have been one of the greatest clubs in the history of English Football

Marvellous rant — your disdain for Spurs is surpassed only by your mild dislike for our neighbours!

We and they know that we can do these at home with a great crowd behind them.

COYB!

People might think they are clever but I don't know how, when you consider it might be leaving Everton at a disadvantage in this modern age.

I was even wondering if the manager could set a trap to find out who the mole is but then I realized that Everton Football Club is currently full of nepotism and the same thing has been going on for years.

Big stadium but, in your own words, "Big club, my arse!"

I totally agree. Letting on if you know the team before the team is formally announced is just giving the opposition an advantage.

Everton took them out early, and Gary Naismith scored a fine free-kick into the Park End.

Tomorrow is another match and Everton proved last month at Spurs they could match and could or should have beaten them.

Cack house referee and VAR, yet again, but tomorrow I believe will be Everton's day.

Spurs are good offensively but not so good at the back.

Everton to build on the Fulham performance and beat Spurs.

UTFTS!

I always enjoy your posts, mate, but I don't think there's anything sinister about correct teams being predicted.

I think your mate's options are so limited. Once you know who's available, there's a very good chance you (and the opposition) will be able to name our starting 11.

He hasn't half got his work cut out.

For one thing, our squad's that threadbare, it's usually pretty fucking obvious what the starting eleven is going to be.

I was also very disappointed with the way we played last Saturday because I don't believe he used the 4-4-2 system correctly but he might argue that our players are tired. He would probably be able to back this up when you consider how many times we wasted very good offensive opportunities because our final ball never quite got there.

Maybe we will benefit from being out of the cup, which seemed to be how a lot of Evertonians were thinking anyway.

I'd love to see Calvert-Lewin score – he deserves it.

How and why it's leaked is not yet clear, but I would guess at the referees who would generally be the first to know from the two managers, but it could easily be elsewhere,

I'm biased cause I absolutely hate the current refs and blame them for everything!

Need that siege mentality to manifest as a ‘Fuck everyone' attitude to the opposition!

UTFT!

3 Points Please. COYBs.

So it's down to his outstanding strike rate and Everton's ability to close him down and Pickford in goal. I am confident enough.

Now there is another attack on the club, through no fault at all of their own.

Any spirit at all they show deserves to be applauded to the nines.

All the doom and gloom. Everton to win for me and I haven't taken my medication yet! We are not dead yet! Come on!! Positive thoughts everyone!

Playing Dobbin would do that. He's quick and would cause all sorts of problems.

Given our current squad I wouldn't, but if we had Tottenham's squad I'd swap 'em in a heartbeat. Both managers are capable of getting the best out of their respective teams and on paper we can expect a point at best.

However, I firmly believe this match is realistically winnable - not just hopefully. A good performance like we know we can produce, unsettle the visitors and we'll be celebrating after lunch. I can see 2-0 today with someone (anyone) actually converting the odd chance. Defence sticking to its job.

Praying for another Keane-like strike from somewhere. McNeil to oblige?

Spurs we know will play a high line, but what threatens a team playing high up the pitch is pace, and we aren't blessed with very speedy players.

Seems a long time since we have beaten Spurs at Goodison, so today would be a good stay to start. I hope Gueye starts as we have lacked his energy in midfield, let's hope Branthwaite recovered from the knock he took the other day.

So, with the early start, a different routine for many. I am not keen on the early starts, but at least we can hopefully win and put a bit of pressure on the clubs around us in the league.

I think Godfrey should keep his place after his performance at Fulham. I would put Patterson in front of him and Young in front of Mykolenko start Beto:

Pickford
Godfrey, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko
Patterson, Gueye, Garner, Young
McNeil
Beto (Calvert-Lewin on at 65').

We are missing Doucoure badly but having Gueye back for this one is a big plus.

Up the Blues!!!

However, this Spurs team were lucky to beat us at the 'Lane and we can get 3 points with a robust defensive display and surely someone can score us a goal?

1-0.

Now 3rd from bottom of the Premier League, the position looks, at this stage of the season, to be between us, Luton, Nottm Forest & Brentford… we have to win today!

4-0 to the Blues then!