Everton-Tottenham Hotspur Preview

Tottenham are looking to kick-start their season with a victory against Everton in Saturday's match at White Hart Lane.

Spurs (0-2-1) are winless in their first three Premier League matches of a season for the first time since 2012. Tottenham opened with a 1-0 defeat against Manchester United and have settled for back-to-back draws against Stoke City and Leicester. The Lilywhites squandered a two-goal advantage against Stoke and also let slip a one-goal lead against Leicester.

Teenage midfielder Dele Alli gave Spurs an 81st-minute lead against the Foxes at the King Power Stadium last Saturday, only for Riyad Mahrez to equalise for the home side within 90 seconds.

"I feel very confident to be honest – everybody is very focused at the moment," Belgium midfielder Mousa Dembele told his club's official website. "We're disappointed about the results but we're not disappointed about the way we've played for the most part.

"There have been a few bits in our matches that we need to improve on but in general we're very positive and we have a lot of confidence to produce a good result against Everton. Of course, we mustn't make the same mistakes that we did in our recent games, but in a way it's better that we've done this at the beginning of the season because we've learned from it and we won't make the same errors again."

Everton (1-1-1) are enjoying their best start since 2012 with four points from three matches.

The Toffees were held to a draw 2-2 draw at home by promoted Watford on the opening day and then beat Southampton 3-0 at St. Mary's. The Merseysiders suffered their first defeat of the campaign Sunday when they lost 2-0 at home to early season pacemakers Manchester City.

Everton were involved in League Cup action Wednesday night, rallying to defeat League One side Barnsley 5-3 after extra-time at Oakwell. The Tykes raced into a 2-0 lead before the Toffees responded with goals by Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith.

Daniel Crowley put Barnsley back in front but Romelu Lukaku scored for Everton on 78 minutes to force the extra 30 minutes. Marc Roberts put through his own net on 96 minutes, and Lukaku scored again on 115 minutes as the Toffees booked their place for a third-round match at Reading.

"We are working extremely hard to have a winning team and the feeling at the end is real satisfaction for each other," Everton manager Roberto Martinez told his club's official website. "We had to find that reaction (to going 2-0 down) and I was proud of every player who was on that pitch in the second half."

Tottenham have won 14 of the 23 Premier League meetings between the sides at White Hart Lane, with Everton winning just three. There have been six draws with Spurs outscoring Everton 44-27 in the 23 games.

Spurs did the double over the Toffees last season, including a 2-1 win at White Hart Lane in November. Mirallas put Everton up after 15 minutes, but Christian Eriksen equalised six minutes later. Roberto Soldado scored what proved to be the winning goal on the stroke of halftime. Tottenham won 1-0 at Goodison Park on the last day of the season on Harry Kane's goal 24 minutes in, and Everton mustered just one shot on target.