By Paul Conatzer
Twitter @Toffeepaul.com
The majority of Sky’s cameras and to be honest, the eyes of most casual fans will be trained on two games on the final day of the Premier League season as Manchester City and Liverpool take a close title race to its conclusion. City has the easiest route. They beat Brighton and no matter what Liverpool does the trophy remains in Manchester. Liverpool need to have a better result than City and face a tougher test in a Wolves’ team that has been one of the surprises of the season.
For Everton supporters, the final day brings a trip to Tottenham Hotspur to face a Spurs’ team that might still be walking on air after their comeback victory against Ajax to earn a place in the Champions’ League final against Liverpool. As soon as the final whistle blows, Evertonians will become temporary Spurs fans until the end of the Champions’ League Final.
Spurs humiliated Everton with a 6-2 victory at Goodison Park in the first meeting between the two teams this season.
Everton have improved greatly since that game and have eight clean sheets in their last 10 games and have picked up wins against Top 6 sides – Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United by an aggregate score of 7-0.
The Blues will be without Richarlison, who is the club’s joint leading scorer with Gylfi Sigurdsson (13 goals.) Dominic Calvert-Lewin will also miss the game for Everton and that’s what makes this match a little more interesting.
Marco Silva could go with the easy solution and bring in Cenk Tosun as the lone striker and former Spur Theo Walcott to replace Richarlison wide on the right.
There are other choices for Silva and they could be much more intriguing, Silva could operate with Walcott in the middle and that must be tempting because he has four goals and three assists in eight games again Spurs. Ademola Lookman would slot in on the right side and give Everton extra speed up front and there’s a number of Everton supporters, who want Lookman to get more playing time.
However, some Everton fans have taken to social media to push for Josh Bowler, who has been part of Everton’s double winning under-23 squad. Forward Frasier Hornby’s name has also been mentioned as a possibility.
A win or a draw will keep Everton in eighth place and while that’s the same finish as last season. Few would argue that Silva’s Everton team has played better than the combination of Koeman/Allardyce did last season. Especially over the last few months.
Everton haven’t won on the road against Spurs since 2008.
There’s one final twist. Barcelona loanee Andre Gomes has impressed for Everton and there are rumours that Spurs are interested in the classy central midfielder.
Silva told the BBC.
“The only feedback I hear from now is from Andre and what he said to me. Our relationship is really honest. He hasn’t decided anything about his future, and his agent neither. I’ve already said about our talks with him and (Kurt) Zouma also. Now it’s up to us to show our ambition.”
Perhaps a win against the Champions’ League finalists might go a long way in proving that ambition.