Christian Eriksen remains injured for the visit of Everton on Saturday evening, but Andros Townsend could return to action.
The Dane sat out last weekend’s draw with Leicester because of a knee injury, and boss Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed he will be missing again this weekend.
But, winger Townsend, who missed most of pre-season with a shoulder injury, could be set for his first outing of the season.
“Eriksen is still out, and Andros? In the last few days he started to work with the squad,” the Spurs boss told a press conference on Thursday.
“We have another training session tomorrow but we can confirm Eriksen is still out, and maybe, Andros is in the squad.”
The former Ajax man’s omission will be a big blow to Pochettino, who is becoming under increasing pressure after a poor start to the Premier League season.
Despite picking up just two points from his opening three games, the Argentinian remains adamant that his team’s points return, thus far, is not reflective of how well they’ve played.
“If we only assess the performance they were good as we played well against Manchester United, Stoke and Leicester, but that isn’t being reflected in the table because we deserve more points,” he said.
“We know we have a good team in front of us with Everton. We are in a good moment, and play well but we need to confirm that with victories.”
A fourth game without victory may see the pressure start to crank up on Pochettino, and his task will not be made any easier with the loss of key playmaker Eriksen.
Dele Alli could start his first Premier League game after scoring against Leicester weekend, or Erik Lamela may be given another chance to prove his worth to the club after another dissapointing display at the Walkers Stadium.
Meanwhile, the visitors face a left-back crisis following an injury to Brendan Galloway against Manchester City last weekend, whilst Leighton Baines remains sidelined.
Roberto Martinez tried Bryan Oviedo in the position against Barnsley in midweek, but the experiment would’ve hardly gave the Spaniard confidence as they shipped three goals, and so Ty Browning may get a call-up.
Tony Hibbert – who could’ve slotted in – is also out, along with midfield duo Darron Gibson and Steven Piennar.
Match facts:
– Saturday’s game will be Roberto Martinez’s 100th in charge of Everton.
– This week marks nine years since Everton last won a game at White Hart Lane.
– Of the previous 15 league meetings between the sides, Spurs’ 2-0 home win in the 11/12 season is the only to be settled by more than a one goal margin.
– The Toffees are unbeaten in five of their last six domestic away games.
Predicted XIs:
Spurs: Lloris, Walker, Davies, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Dier, Mason, Dembele, Chadli, Alli, Kane.
Everton: Howard, Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Browning, McCarthy, Cleverley, Barkely, Mirallas, Kone, Lukaku.
Match odds:
Spurs (evens), Draw (5/2), Everton (13/5) – Source: SkyBet
