Tottenham v Everton

Last updated : 24 August 2006 By Les Roberts
…but at least we get it out of the way early!

If this fixture follows the usual script then we'll get webbed and some young Spurs player that you've never heard of, and probably never will again, will have a blinder...or score...or do both!

We go into this one on the back of two decent results but two less than convincing performances and Moyes doesn't appear to be able to work out what his best starting 11 is.

After Wednesday night it's likely that it will involve Cahill but probably not Beattie as he put in another laboured performance.

And, given the way Spurs ran Sheffield United all over the shop on Tuesday, we'll probably employ the 4-5-1 system that many thought we would for the Blackburn match.

Joleon Lescott could come in to partner Yobo in defence if Stubbs doesn't recover from the knock he took after that ludicrous two-footed challenge by David Bentley at Ewood Park.

Speaking of Bentley, how long do you reckon it takes him to keep that daft little cavalier beard in shape?

Anyway, back to the match…Everyone knows that this is a dog of a fixture for us and we haven't won down there since 1986.

Of the 28 meetings we've had with them in the Premiership we've won two, drawn 10 and lost 16.

They've taken maximum points from us in five of the 14 previous Premiership seasons and our best return against them was in 1996/97 when we drew 0-0 down there and won 1-0 at Goodison.

But will we break their stranglehold over us this season?

They looked a fantastic team last year and had a great season, nearly matching our feat of 2004/05 by breaking the monopoly of the top four teams.

But they choked on the last day, after half the team had, apparently, gone down with food poisoning the night before, and Arsenal pipped them to fourth spot.

And it's difficult to work out whether or not they've actually improved over the summer.

They were well beaten by Bolton on the opening day but then they generally do get beat when they travel there. The last time they won in that fixture was in 1995/96.

But then they looked mustard against Sheffield United, as Robbie Keane played an absolute blinder like he generally does against us!

Over the summer they shipped out more players than they signed and the departure of Michael Carrick will be a massive loss.

And, despite bagging his first goal against Sheffield United on Tuesday, their signing of the summer, Dimitov Berbatov, is a bit of an unknown quantity. So, as ever, it's hard to tell!

Oh yeah, and remember Dean Marney, the player you'd never heard of that had a blinder against us, and scored…twice…when they beat us 2-5 the other year? Well he's been sold to Hull!

I predict 1-2 to Tottenham but hopefully I'll be wrong…again!