Dominic Solanke Set for First Spurs Start Against Everton

Roberto De Zerbi believes Dominic Solanke is finally ready to step back into the spotlight – and he may not have to wait beyond Saturday night.

Tottenham host Everton still searching for their first Premier League win of the season, still searching for their first league goal. In the middle of that drought sits Solanke, a centre-forward signed to lead the line but barely seen.

The 28-year-old has played just 114 minutes in all competitions this campaign. Not a single start. Not a single league goal from anyone in a Spurs shirt.

That could change against Everton.

Solanke’s long road back

Solanke has not started a game for Spurs since he limped off 40 minutes into last season’s crucial 1-0 win away at Wolves with a hamstring problem. That night was supposed to be about survival; instead it became the start of another long spell in the treatment room.

A recurring ankle injury then wrecked the rest of his campaign. He missed the final four matches entirely, watching on as Spurs clung to their Premier League status on the last day without him.

The plan was simple over the summer: full pre-season, clean slate, Solanke ready to go from the opening weekend. Reality bit. The club’s medical staff, working closely with De Zerbi, slowed everything down, wary not just of his recent muscle and ankle problems but also of jet lag and the cumulative strain on a player with a patchy fitness record.

Under performance director Dan Lewindon, Spurs have overhauled their medical and performance operation and are unapologetically cautious, especially with players like Solanke who have spent too much time on the treatment table. Every extra week of patience has been taken deliberately.

The result? While Tottenham have stumbled through three league games without scoring, their main striker has mostly watched.

De Zerbi: “He’s very close”

Now the tone has shifted. Solanke has twice made the bench, against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, and De Zerbi is ready to push him to the front again.

“I think he is close. He’s a crucial player for us, Dom Solanke. For the characteristics, personality, level of the player. He’s very close after two times on the bench - Newcastle and Nottingham - he could start the game. Or, anyway, Tuesday, he can start the game,” De Zerbi said.

The choice is clear. Either Solanke starts against Everton in the league, or he is unleashed from the first whistle in the Carabao Cup third-round tie against Liverpool on Tuesday. De Zerbi sounded like a coach who has waited long enough.

Goals gone, pressure rising

Spurs’ performances have not matched their results. There have been passages of control, plenty of structure, some fluency. None of that hides the blunt truth: zero league goals, three games, mounting pressure.

The 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest last weekend underlined the problem. Tottenham had the ball, they had territory, but they did not have ideas in the final third. The attack looked flat, short of spark and short of conviction.

And look at the goals they have allowed to walk out of the door.

Brennan Johnson, their top scorer in the 2024/25 season, was sold to Crystal Palace in January. On Saturday night he will line up in blue, not white, as an Everton player returning to north London with a point to prove.

Richarlison, last season’s top scorer, is also edging towards the exit, with Brazilian side Vasco Da Gama pushing hard to take him back to his homeland. Add that to the earlier departures of Heung Min-Son and Harry Kane and the scale of the attacking rebuild is stark. A once-prolific frontline has been dismantled piece by piece.

De Zerbi, though, is not flinching.

A challenge to the new guard

The Italian insists there are goals in this squad. If that is true, his forwards now have to show it.

“Solanke didn’t play many games. I hope Solanke can be available this season more than last season. Marmoush didn’t play for Tottenham last season,” he said.

“Savio didn’t play last season for Tottenham. And then all players they have to…Mathys Tel has to improve. Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray. Now he is 22 years (old) and he has to push, to show.

“Because the level of football is you show who you are and what you can do, or you lose the level. I think we can score goals with this squad, but we have to see.”

That is the gauntlet. No hiding behind reputations, no leaning on the ghosts of Kane and Son. The message is simple: prove it, or fall away.

For Solanke, that challenge carries extra weight. Spurs need a focal point, someone to finish the moves and carry the burden that others have left behind. De Zerbi has called him “crucial”. Now comes the test of whether his body, and his form, can finally match that billing.

Everton arrive on Saturday with Johnson ready to haunt his former club and Spurs still waiting for their first league goal of the season. If Solanke’s name appears on that teamsheet, the patience of the past few months will be over.

Then we find out if he can change the entire direction of Tottenham’s season.