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