New signing Ashley Williams is set to sit out Ronald Koeman’s first competitive game as Everton boss when Tottenham visit Goodison Park on Saturday.
Spurs, however, could hand debuts to midfielder Victor Wanyama and forward Vincent Janssen as they aim to build on their third-place finish from last season.
Tottenham finished their 2015/16 campaign in disappointing fashion, but will be hoping for better this year as they prepare for life in the Champions League.
For Everton, now without John Stones following his move to Manchester City, it is a fresh start under new boss Koeman as they aim to improve on their 11th-placed finish from last year.
Koeman has said ahead of the Premier League campaign-opener that centre-back Williams, brought in from Swansea on Wednesday, will not be ready to make his debut for at least another week due to a late start to pre-season, and claims the Toffees in general are only on “70 per cent” of the fitness he wants.
Full-back Seamus Coleman (ankle) and striker Romelu Lukaku (heel) are doubts, but skipper Phil Jagielka is available to start in central defence after overcoming a hamstring problem, and two summer recruits are poised to make their bows in goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg and midfielder Idrissa Gueye.
Wanyama, who joined Spurs from Southampton this summer, is likely to start at Goodison Park as fellow midfielder Mousa Dembele remains suspended.
Jan Vertonghen is also in contention. The central defender has recovered from an ankle injury sustained at Euro 2016.
Opta Facts
Everton are winless in their last seven Premier League meetings with Tottenham Hotspur (W0 D4 L3).
No Premier League team has lost more games on the opening weekend than Spurs (9) – level with West Ham.
Everton have drawn their last three opening day matches 2-2, with Ross Barkley scoring two of their six goals in this run.
Koeman has won just one of his four Premier League games against Spurs (W1 D1 L2), but this was in their last meeting in May (Spurs 1-2 Southampton).
Harry Kane’s next Premier League goal will be his 50th – if he scores in this match, he’ll have reached the landmark in 87 games. Only eight players have needed fewer apps to reach 50 PL goals, and Kane will be level with Ian Wright (87 apps).
Kane is on the current longest run of consecutive appearances in the Premier League without missing a game for his team (68).
This will be the 20th Premier League season that Gareth Barry has played in – only Ryan Giggs (22) has played in more, while only Rio Ferdinand & Frank Lampard (20) have played in as many.
Vincent Janssen topped the Dutch Eredivisie goalscoring charts in 2015-16 with 27 goals.
As at this post Everton has 3.11 odd to win the match on NaijaBet while Tottenham has 2.28 odd to win the match also, while the odd to draw the match is 3.25