Stoke (at Goodison) Preview and Spurs review

Goodison Park Saturday 30th of October, 15:00 GMT

After beating the potters both home and away in their return season of 08/09, the least two meetings  has ended with no winners. You have to go back to 1982 to find the last Everton defeat, 1-0 at Victoria ground.  Current league form suggest a home win, Everton are starting to look strong at Goodison, while Stoke doesn't take many points away from Britannia.
They got the potential to surprise, and their style of play is simple but effective. Even though United was too strong for them in the last round, they must be taken seriously. Kenwyne Jones is an attack in his own, and will be dangerous, even if our center backs should be able to deal with whatever Delap throws at them.

Team news, injuries and such, according to Stoke and Evertons official sites:

Stoke: Jermaine Pennant (winger) , and Kenwyne Jones (striker) are possibly out due to a virus, and Danny Collins (defender), and Ricardo Fuller (forwarder) are doubtful, Winger Matthew Etherington may return.

Everton: Rodwell, Fellaini, Osman and Anichebe out, Arteta is doubtful.

My Prediction this time is a hard fought 2-1 win for the Toffees.

discuss my prediction and other stuff to do with this match in the match thread.

The review part

Spurs v Everton 1-1.
The game was all in all what you'd expect. Spurs are a very tough team to beat at White Hart Lane, and even with a European game just ahead of our game they did look like the strongest team.
Not by much though, and even though Spurs looked very strong in the second half, we were never outplayed. It was definitely a game of two halves though, like every game.
We were the best in the first half, and they took over more in the second.
A fair result when you look at the match overall, and one we have to be happy with.

- MF

Spurs away preview, Liverpool and October so far review

White heart lane, October 23d, 12:45 (GMT)

The games against Spurs are always hard. The stats say also show that, and we haven't won at WHL since 2008. Last season our away game against Tottenham finished 2-1 to Spurs. Their goals was scored by Pavlyuchenko and Modric, ours by Yakubu.
Yakubu will be hoping to score again tomorrow, something that many thinks will result in further goals from our striker. I will take goals from midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers personally, so to me it doesn't matter if our strikers can't score but it must be weighing on their minds.

Both teams has injuries going into this one, distributed just about evenly between the teams both in severity and amount. Spurs are returning from another one of those tough European matches, and might be slightly deflated by not having their effort rewarded with even a point. Gareth Bale will be encouraged by his amazing performance.

Discuss in the match thread.

Redknapp is one of the smartest tacticians out there, and he will know his own team as well as having a plan for how to deal with us. Moyes won a tactical victory over another such clever manager recently though, Hodgson had no answer for Moyes' tactical dispositions in the Derby. Which brings me to the review part of this entry:

The review part

Liverpool supporters was still celebrating the arrival of their new owner, and wanted to continue that celebration with a turn-around on the pitch at Goodison. Well, that didn't happen.
Everton controlled the game completely, and despite Hodgson insisting that Liverpool should have gotten points, or even won based on their second half ball possession Liverpool was never really dangerous.
I do like to toot my own horn, even if I don't do so often. Here goes; I predicted a 2-0 win days before the game, and it came through. Yay me, I know stuff seemingly. Toot.
I can't remember having enjoyed a derby game that much before either.

As for the month so far, having played two games. Against Birmingham away and Liverpool at home, from which I predicted 2 points, we got 6.
In fact I predicted 5 points in total from the 4 rounds in October, admittedly that was a conservative prediction. Still, we are far ahead of schedule and our turnaround has begun.

-MF

The friendly derby - Goodison

October 17th, 13:30 (GMT)

The merseyside derby, like most derbies are games with much at stake. It will never be just about points on the table. Form, stats, history, injuries, home field advantage etc all becomes irrelevant. Or almost.

Both clubs has seen better times, and has had less than optimal season openers.
Once again Everton are slow starters, but has been showing signs of improving and has always played well even if the margins hasn't always gone our way. As the win against Birmingham last round showed, our luck is starting to turn. In every part of the team we are seeing confidence returning with every game. Fellaini and Arteta owns midfield, Yakubu is looking sharper and sharper with every game, Jags, Heitinga and Distin are making Howards job easier, and he is making top quality performances as well.

The red side has had their share of trouble off the pitch with that whole business with owners etc. I was a tad pessimistic when I saw Hodgson was chosen to take over after Benitez. The Spaniard had seemed to make every wrong choice in the transfer market, and was dismantling the team he had helped build, and it seemed he was losing support among the players.
Hodgson is a man that brought Fulham to the Europa league finals, and has experience with getting the most out of a squad. Fortunately though, he seems to be struggling with turning Liverpool into anything resembling the honest hardworking collective that he had in Fulham.

At Everton our main worry is whether Jagielka, Pienaar or Saha will be fit to play the game. It seems Jags won't make it, but Pienaar and Saha should. Rodwell will unfortunately be out injured for some time.

This game has everything. Two neighbors, both geographically and on the table. Two teams that got more quality than the table show, and two squads of players that will fight to the end for a win. Much more than bragging rights to play for in this one. Neither team can afford not to win, and only one can.

My prediction; 2-0 win.

Discuss in the match thread.

-MF

Birmingham review (and where it got us)

We won our first game of the season, got our second away clean sheet in a row, and climbed from the relegation zone last saturday on St'Andrews.

Everton dominated the match and should have led by half time. Further pressing the home team in the second half which led to the own goal. 

Another goal on overtime showed that we carried on and pressed for a second rather than sitting back trying to defend the lead. 

The teams approach was not very different from earlier games this season, but now the margins were not there to stop us. Also, its worth noting that moving Fellaini to a more comfortable position in defensive/central midfield has resulted in the team appearing more relaxed when keeping the ball in the middle of the ground. Even if Fellaini was even more comfortable and almost arrogant in his domination of midfield on his best moments last season we are seeing the return of our midfield boss. 

Like Yakubu has been showing signs of becoming more dangerous in the box lately, and again in the Birmingham match, Fellaini too will grow with every game.

Coleman played well on the right wing before being replaced by Bilyaledtinov, and Osman performed great and on several occasions combined nicely with Yakubu and Cahill in the area. 

It might sound easy to say that it only took a win, and a couple of goals to change the team, but it is an accurate assessment in my eyes. What has been wrong with Everton this season was never the way we performed defensively, or our style or approach. Scoring goals and getting the win will lower the shoulders of the players and lift the spirits. That will release the quality that is in the team, which in turn will make those margins go our way. 

This result has left us with the ability to spend the Premier leagues National team break in which to savour a great result and the feeling of finally being rewarded for the hard work and effort. A positive state of mind and the knowledge that our luck has turned.

-MF.