Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte is back. The one-time Premier League champion is set to make his league debut as Tottenham Hotspur manager this weekend as his Spurs side take on Everton at Goodison Park.
Conte catches Everton at a good time, as the Toffees are in the midst of a rough run of Premier League 2021 results.
However, Rafa Benitez will be desperate to end Everton’s home losing streak, and in turn, spoil Conte’s Spurs bow in the Premier League.
Talking Points
How quickly can Conte change Spurs’ style?
After three years away, Antonio Conte is back in England as he takes over for the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo at Spurs.
Conte – who spent two successful seasons at Chelsea from 2016 to 2018 as he won both the Premier League title and the FA Cup –is known for improving sides quickly, and his appointment should boost Tottenham’s Premier League 2021 odds of contending for a European place.
Conte’s first job will be to solidify a leaky Spurs defence which was torn to shreds in their 3-0 defeat to Manchester United last time out. He will likely play his preferred three-centre-back formation, which has been a trademark of his success over the years.
However, Spurs are short on reliable centre-backs at the moment, so it remains to be seen how well Conte can implement that formation.
Meanwhile, Conte also faces a big challenge in terms of turning around a Tottenham attack that has scored a miserly nine goals this season, tied for the second-fewest in the league.
There are certainly a lot of tools for Conte to work with Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, who have the potential to form a prolific strike partnership like the Romelu Lukaku-Lautaro Martinez duo Conte had when he won Serie A with Inter last season.
Conte also has some capable midfield talent in the form of Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, although it will be interesting to see whether Conte opts to play all three of them together right away.
Everton struggling for form
The honeymoon is over for Rafa Benitez in the blue side of Merseyside. After a promising start under the Spaniard, Everton have suffered a major dip in form which has seen them win just one of their last six league games and lose three in a row.
A 1-0 defeat to West Ham was still understandable. But a 5-2 hammering at the hands of newly promoted Watford and a 2-1 loss at Wolves were much harder for Toffees fans to stomach.
In Benitez’s defence, he is dealing with a host of injuries to key players such as Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure, and Yerry Mina, who form the spine of the team. While both Calvert-Lewin and Doucoure are both set to miss out once again, Mina is returning to fitness and could be set to return to the heart of their defence.
After Everton’s recent poor performances at the back, Benitez will almost surely go back to the drawing board and look to shore up the Toffees’ defence against Tottenham. That could mean a fairly conservative style of play even though they are at home.
Meanwhile, Richarlison and Demarai Gray will look to get in behind the Spurs defence on the counterattack.
History
Tottenham have had a decided edge over Everton in the Premier League era. Spurs have a 27-9 advantage in terms of head-to-head wins, while there have been 22 draws.
However, Everton have been quite competitive in their most recent meetings. They have only lost once in their last six meetings, with two wins – one of which came in the FA Cup last season – and there draws.
Gylfi Sigurdsson and Harry Kane both had braces in their last meeting at Goodison Park, which ended in a 2-2 draw.
Betting Tip
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Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur | 1X2 Tottenham Hotspur @ 2.54 |
| November 7, 22:00 (GMT+8) |
SBOTOP odds have Spurs as slight 2.54 favourites in Conte’s first game in charge. Everton are priced at 2.93 to pick up a much-needed home win, while a draw is similarly priced at 2.98.
While Conte will have had just a few days on the training ground to install his tactics into his new team, he will undoubtedly provide a much-needed injection of energy to a Spurs side that had grown quite stale in recent seasons.
As a result, expect a bit of a new manager bounce from Spurs as they take advantage of a struggling Everton side.
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR ( ) BETS ARE WORTH: |
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 = €20 (Highly confident) |
= €10 (CONFIDENT) |
= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT) |
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Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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