Everton v Tottenham - Tottenham Spurred on for More?

With everyone’s attention turned towards the red side of the city, Everton are perhaps not being given the praise and admiration they deserve. Bearing down on their local rivals in that precious fourth Champion’s League spot is enough to even soothe not being involved in the 4th round of the FA Cup at the weekend.

While cup events haven’t gone according to plan, their league form remains consistent; just 3 defeats since mid October and they came at the hands of the three teams above. There may be a slight concern regarding where to expect the goals to come from. With their top goal scorer Yakubu, away with Nigeria, Everton’s could find themselves hitting a goal drought.

This definitely appeared the case on Wednesday when the Toffees hosted Chelsea in the Carling Cup semi final. Even without Terry, Chelsea’s back line has been formidable as of late and it was never going to be an easy task for Everton to break through. Johnson upfront alone was easily contained and Cahill was well watched and although the Spurs defence is a little shakier, it is obvious the Blues are lacking the serious firepower that would bridge the gap between them and the big 3.

Tottenham on the other can’t stop scoring with a whopping 23 goals from their last 9 games (across all competitions). The Berbatov-Keane partnership is the best strike force in the Premiership and they appear a former shell of the team that started the season because of it. Surely people have to commend the coach for this? Forget the Keegan factor, the Ramos revolution is full swing; 3 months at the club and he’s already ended a 9-year wait for a win over their nemesis Arsenal and paved the way to Wembley. Now he needs to pave the way up the Premiership and Goodison is a good place to start.

For the last three seasons, Spurs have come to Everton and taken all 3 points away with them; Berbatov and Jenas with the goals last time around. In fact they have only left empty handed once in the last 10 seasons (a 3-1 defeat in 2004) and with their Carling Cup ecstasy likely to last a good while yet, an away win on Premier 10 wouldn’t be the craziest bet.

Pundit’s Pick: Toffee’s stuck on memories of missed Wembley chance (away win)

Tags: Carling Cup, Everton, Fourth Champions Legaue spot, Spurs, the Toffees, Tottenham Hotspurs

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 11:02 and is filed under Betting-Tips, Premier 10 Match Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.