This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Mauricio Pochettino has nowhere to hide this weekend when Tottenham Hotspur take on Everton.

Spurs have been in woeful form throughout the start of the 2019/20 campaign, winning just three Premier League games. In the Champions League, too, they threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Olympiacos and were also thumped 7-2 by Bayern Munich, prior to their face-saving 5-0 win over Red Star Belgrade.

On Sunday, they were beaten on Merseyside, losing 2-1 to Liverpool at Anfield, despite taking a 1-0 lead through Harry Kane’s first-minute header. A Jordan Henderson strike and Mohamed Salah’s penalty gave Jurgen Klopp’s men all three points.

The Toffees, though, simply have to be beaten or the pressure will reach a boiling point for the Argentine.

To look through the results between the two clubs is to see that Everton have gone 13 games without a victory over the north London giants.

In those games, Spurs have scored 26 goals, including six at Goodison Park last season, while their opponents have netted just 11.

Indeed, since 1990, Everton have won 10 games against this weekend’s opponents. That’s 10 out of a possible 60 victories.

Of course, football is changeable and Spurs have dropped points before, drawing 2-2 with Marco Silva’s men on the final day of last season, while also drawing on three consecutive occasions between 2015 and 2016.

But the fact of the matter remains: Spurs enjoyed perhaps their best display of the 2018/19 season against this weekend’s opponents, running out 6-2 winners, and looking for all the world like a team on the up and up.

Now, the circumstances have changed.

Spurs sit 11th, eight points behind Leicester City and Chelsea in third and fourth respectively.

If Everton win this weekend, perhaps amazingly, they will overtake their north London rivals, moving onto 13 points, while Pochettino’s side could slip even closer to the relegation zone.

Pochettino, thus, has no excuse. Spurs, historically, can rack up the goals and the wins against the Toffees.

If they fall to their first defeat since 2012, serious questions will surely have to be asked.