Three games, zero goals
Tottenham welcome Everton to north London without a Premier League goal to their name this season. One point from three matches. Last week’s 0-0 with Nottingham Forest went by without a single shot on target, something the club had not managed in a league game since April 2022.
Roberto De Zerbi is asking for patience. The board handed him more than 300 million pounds over the summer, and Sandro Tonali, Jan Paul van Hecke, Omar Marmoush and Savio all started at the City Ground. Nothing came of any of it. Only Aston Villa and Coventry City share that blank column in the top flight.
No Tottenham side has ever gone through its first four league fixtures without scoring. The last four-game scoreless run of any kind in the top division goes back two decades, and it took in a 2-0 home defeat to Everton in August 2006, with David Moyes already standing in the opposite dugout.
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Moyes has Everton ticking over, quietly
A thin squad, a transfer window that fell apart at the end, and Moyes has still made a decent fist of it. Everton are unbeaten in the league and into the third round of the League Cup. Nine goals so far, two of them stoppage-time equalisers in the last two games.
The latest arrived at 95 minutes and 11 seconds through Ainsley Maitland-Niles against Manchester United. He was signed cheaply from Lyon with one goal in 109 Premier League appearances behind him. He is also the first Everton player to score on his top-flight debut for the club since Richarlison in August 2018.
Away form is the catch. Six league trips without a win, and one victory in their last 17 visits to Tottenham. The two meetings last season finished 4-0 on aggregate in Spurs’ favour.
48.2%, and a favourite nobody quite trusts
Opta ran the fixture through 10,000 simulations. Tottenham come out on top in 48.2% of them, Everton in 27.1%, with 24.7% finishing level. Lukewarm numbers for a home side that cannot find the net.
De Zerbi has already made eight changes to his league starting XI, more than any other manager in the division and a Tottenham record at this stage of a Premier League season, level with 2011-12. The missing rhythm is easy enough to spot. One bright spot: Mathys Tel has completed 10 dribbles, more than anyone else in England’s top flight this season.
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