Everton v Spurs - Mauricio's preview

Mauricio Pochettino hopes to give our supporters an early Christmas present in Sunday’s “must-win” game at Everton.

Fresh from our excellent 2-0 victory at Arsenal in the Carabao Cup in midweek, we travel to Goodison Park looking to keep pushing at the top end of the Premier League table in our final game before the festivities begin.

Manager Mauricio is keen to keep our positive wave of momentum going – not only to remain in contention, but also as a ‘thank-you’ to our fans for their continued loyalty: “All the games are important for us and for our fans,” he told Spurs TV. “Football is so dynamic – always the most important game is the game we are going to play next. Of course, the derby was important but now it’s in the past and we need to be focused on trying to deliver our best job to provide the victory at Everton, not only for ourselves but for our fans.

“After four-and-a-half years, they have been fantastic with us, with the team. They’ve always provided us with unbelievable energy to achieve all that we want. All together, we can deliver a great job and maybe achieve in the end what we want – that is to win a trophy, all together.”

Marco Silva’s side are unbeaten at home in top-flight action since mid-September and Mauricio knows we’ve a difficult task in store. Our last visit to Goodison yielded a 3-0 triumph in the opening weeks of last season, but we were held to consecutive 1-1 draws in the corresponding fixtures prior to that.

“It’s another tough, must-win game,” added Mauricio. “Everton are doing a very good job. Of course, they have great quality players and it’s always tough to play at Goodison Park – we know that very well – and of course it adds another challenge to beat them there.

“It’s going to be a very competitive game. We played on Wednesday against Arsenal and always it’s a massive effort from us and now after another few days we need another big effort against Everton.

“Everton have had all the week to prepare for the game, a clear week, but of course it's not an excuse – we need to be ready to compete in our best way. We need to focus on trying to recover in the best way possible and arrive with full energy because the demand of the game is going to be great.”