e-Everton Preview: Everton vs. Tottenham Hotspur

The long wait is finally over. This Saturday the new Premier League season begins. For Everton, it is not just a new campaign, but also a new era. On Saturday, Ronald Koeman will begin his first Premier League campaign as the boss of the Toffees.

Follow e-Everton on Twitter

Like e-Everton on Facebook

Article by Kevin Harris

Match day one for Everton sees Tottenham travel to Goodison Park. Spurs finished last season in third place and qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 2010/11. After once again finishing behind Arsenal, they will be looking to hit the ground running and not only finish above their North London rivals, but also challenge for the Premier League title.

Everton on the other hand, finished last season in the bottom half of the table. It led to the sacking of Roberto Martinez and saw the appointment of Koeman. Another big change for Everton from last season is the new investment of Farhad Moshiri. Due to this investment the Toffees have seen a few changes to their squad in the last couple of weeks. Manchester City finally brought their Summer-long transfer saga to an end, when they bought defender John Stones for £47 million. However, Everton have not just been sellers during this window having already brought in three players to add to the squad. Martin Steklenburg joined on a free transfer from Fulham and will back up Joel Robles in goal. Idrissa Gueye came over from Aston Villa for an undisclosed amount, and most recent, Ashley Williams joined the Toffees on a £9 million transfer from fellow Premier League club, Swansea City.

Tottenham are led by Harry Kane, the 23-year-old England International, who bagged 25 goals last season on his way to topping the League in scoring. Tottenham’s midfield were able to orchestrate their attack relatively well. The top three stars in the middle of the pitch, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, and Dele Alli managed a combined 31 assists. At the back Spurs are marshalled by Toby Alderweirld, Danny Rose, Jan Vertonghen and Kyle Walker. These four, along with French International Hugo Lloris in goal, helped stifle the attack of the Tottenham opposition last campaign. Opposing teams managed to score only 35 goals last season.

Everton are usually led in attack by Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian International tallied 18 goals last season, good enough for fourth on the Premier League scoring list. He picked up a slight knock during training and is doubtful to play. This will result in one of two options at forward coming in for Everton, Aurona Kone or Gerard Deulofeu. Deulofeu played the striker position during the pre-season and played it well, so he will likely get the nod. He has the creative ability to create chances, the only concern will be his finishing touch.

With Ashley Williams out, due to his late training start after Euro 2016, and Seamus Coleman having picked up an injury in training, the backline for Everton will most likely be: Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka, Tom Davies, who had a class showing in the preseason, and Ramiro Funes Mori. Joel Robles will join them and protect the goal.

Everton will be looking to sure up their defensive stability this season. Last season was mixed with injury, poor form, defensive mistakes, and a lot of moving around on the back line. Nine different players and two different keepers made starts during the last campaign. In order to improve on the 55 goals conceded last year they need to build partnerships at the back and build consistent form.

It is in the middle of the park that Everton will have the most question marks. There are plenty of quality players - Kevin Mirallas, Ross Barkley, James McCarthy, Gueye, Gareth Barry, Tom Cleverly, and Aaron Lennon are all an option for Koeman. It will all depend on what kind of formation he wants to go with, but he will likely go with a 4-2-3-1. The best options based on pre-season performance would be, Lennon and Mirallas on the wings, with Barkley playing behind Lukaku. The ACL injury to Muhammed Besic last Saturday, means that the two defensive midfielders will likely be, Gueye, and McCarthy or Barry.

This match throws up so many questions. How will Tottenham respond after their finish last season? How does Deli Alli perform in his second Premier League season? How will Koeman manage an Everton squad who have finished eleventh in two consecutive seasons? How will the Everton backline fare? What will the Everton attack look like without Romelu Lukaku. All of these are questions that need answers, but they will have to wait until 3pm BST on Saturday.

Everton have high hopes of returning to Europe, with their new manager and their new investor, but Tottenham also have dreams of hoisting the Premier League trophy in May. If Everton can keep the Tottenham attack at bay and attack on the counter, there is no reason to think they cannot come out and win this game. For Tottenham to win they need to keep possession and not let the Everton wingers get the time and space to feed Lukaku.

e-Everton Prediction: Everton 1 - Tottenham 0

© e-Media Group 2016 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of @e_media_group