| Match report
Tottenham's fine away form
continued with an expected Christmas bonus handed out to them by
Everton lax marking and some super finishing from the Spurs players
putting three points and a 6-2 win in the sleigh for the trip home
to start the hectic festive period in fine style. Everton
could not live with Spurs and the gap might be eight place in the
table, but it might as well be eighty miles, as the home side were
handed the lead before Spurs surged back to take advantage of a
error at the back by Everton and then race away as the Spurs fans
sung their hearts out like a cockerel chorus !!
It was a little changed side that took the field at Goodison Park
and they took to the game moving the ball about smoothly as
Everton’s lone striker Calvert-Lewin was in front of a five-man
midfield that left is time on the ball at the back. It did mean that
midfield was a bit congested and the idea for the home side was to
crowd Tottenham out and take possession as they forced hurried
passing. Some loose touched by Spurs let the Toffees have
possession, but they won the ball back and when playing out of the
back, Everton were looking for the longer ball to find Calvert-Lewin
trying to get behind the Spurs defence with his pace.
The tenth minute saw the
first attempt on goal and it came from Everton. A move on the
right saw a cross pulled back for Richarlison, who had a clear
header, but put it wide, although it almost fell at the far post for
a couple of blue shirts just couldn’t reach it. Spurs hit back with
a vengeance. A run down the left by Son produced a ball across that
Eriksen just got a toe to, but couldn’t control and then Kane had an
air shot to a ball in from the right. Trippier drove the ball back
in, but Pickford saved and this was after Son’s vision picked out
Kane running beyond Keane and as Pickford came out, Harry took the
ball down neatly, but his lob went two feet over.
Fifteen minutes in, Kane ran
onto a through ball into the box and was clattered by Zouma. The
referee didn’t give anything, but on TV replays, it showed Kane got
the first touch and Zouma went in recklessly. Eriksen was
pulling the strings with passes that cut out Everton players and it
was keeping the home defenders on their toes. Kane struck a 25 yard
free kick well wide, as it dipped enough, but didn’t curl back at
goal. Then, against the run of play, a bouncing ball went over
Winks’ head and Sigurdsson threaded a pass through to Calvert-Lewin,
who pulled the ball across and Walcott ran in unmarked to squeeze a
shot past Lloris at his near post. Spurs would have to come
from behind to salvage anything from this game.
The game was furious, with
Kane flashing a shot over from 20 yards out, then Calvert-Lewin
heading in, but he had pushed Sanchez before meeting the cross. Next
time the ball hit the net, it did count. Eriksen played a pass to
Kane on Halfway line and his first time ball saw Zouma and Pickford
go for it outside the area and the ball bounced off them to
Heung-Min Son, who was just inside the side of the box on the right
and took a look at the goal before putting away a really difficult
half-volley to equalise. It was a fine piece of finishing and
what had been missing from Tottenham’s build-up play so far. Walcott
showed his true class when he had space in the box to line up his
shot and put it high into the crowd. Harry Kane still didn’t have
his sights on goal quite right, as a good move between him, Dele and
Son ended with a shot that looked to bend into the far post, but to
went a couple of feet wide. Perhaps they were just sighters for
efforts to come ? A neat one-two between Sissoko and Dele saw the
Frenchman play it left to Son, who was into the ox on his own.
He drove a low shot at goal, which Pickford got a good hand to
getting it to the penalty spot, but Dele had continued his run and
buried a low right foot shot that flew under the keeper to give
Spurs a lead.
Spurs were powering through the Everton midfield, which was leaving
a lot of space, which begged the question as to where they all were
? There were enough of them, but they were chasing shadows as the
game went towards half-time. Son’s trickery forced Zouma to tread on
his heel as he turned the Chelsea loanee, which gave Spurs a
free-kick three yards outside the Everton box, right of centre.
Trippier and Eriksen stood over it and Kieran took it. He bent it
over the end of the wall and although he beat Pickford’s dive, he
Saw the ball come back out off the foot of the post. As it went into
the middle of the goal, it found Harry Kane waiting for it and he
opened his body to ensure that he put the rebound into the net to
make it 3-1. It was nearly 4-1 when Dele was played through in
the box, but he was offside. That didn’t stop Pickford going
in with excessive force and how the referee didn’t at least book him
is questionable, having booked Trippier for putting his
foot in Calvert-Lewin’s chest when the Everton striker came in
behind him. It was a booking, but if that was, what was Pickford’s
challenge ? The Everton fans booed their team off, but knowing the
history of this fixture, there had been a fair few 3-3 draws,
although there had also been a 10-4 to Spurs !! The challenge by
Pickford had obviously taken its toll on Dele, who failed to return
for the second half, with Erik Lamela replacing him.
The half was only three
minutes old when Trippier’s ball to Kane put him clear on the right
and while he could get a shot away, he crossed the ball that was
cleared to an on-running Eriksen, who buried it right footed from 20
yards out to beat Coleman’s attempted block and Pickford’s
despairing dive to make the gap even bigger. It wasn’t going to be
3-3 now, but would it end up 10-4 ?
Five minutes into the half, Gylfi Sigurdsson took Richarlison’s pass
and ran from left to right across our defence, before shooting
low past Lloris’ right hand to close the score to 4-2. It was a wide
open game and looked like it would be the team who took their
chances who might come out on top. Gomes, who had been pretty
anonymous went off injured to be replaced by the more physical
Schneiderlin, whose passing looked rusty as he tried to pick up the
pace of the game. As for Spurs, they were passing it sharper and a
one-two between Lamela and Eriksen took Davies out of the game,
leaving Erik to run at the defence and release Son between Keane and
Zouma just onside. He took the fizzed in pass well and left himself
one on one with the keeper, as the two defenders appealed for
offside. He steadied himself and shot between Pickford’s legs to
make it 5-2.
Kane nearly sent Lamela away through the middle, but the keeper was
out of his box to reach it first. The game was going end to
end, but with no end product and despite their position in the game,
Everton showed no urgency ion their play. Lamela’s touch was taking
the ball away from him but Spurs had plenty of attacking options.
They worked the ball from left to right and then right to left,
where Alderweireld played a ball down the line to Davies. His
first-time touch sent Son away down the line and a low ball into the
heart of the area picked out Harry Kane, who left Zouma trailing
behind him as he slid in to guide the ball past Pickford’s dive to
his left. With over a quarter of an hour left, it might have been a
question of how many. The wide blue spaces on the terraces
started to match the space in the blue shorts when Spurs went
forward. It looked like being a blue Christmas for the Everton fans
! The score-line allowed Poch to rest Son and bring on Olly Skipp
with just over 10 minutes left.
Sigurdsson fired over the top and Kane had a shot blocked, before
Gylfi struck a shot that Sanchez got a block on and Lloris dropped
on it to safely stop it. It was Sigursson’s last action, as they
brought on Tosun to try and batter the Spurs defence, while Lucas
Moura took over from Sissoko.
Although the score was 6-2, Lamela was loose with his passing and
decision making, which did spark a little revival by the home team,
but they only had a Bernard shot blocked to show for it. A sweeping
one touch passing move went from back to front where Lamela was
brought down by Digne on front of a half empty Everton crowd.
Eriksen’s free-kick was driven in and deflected wide for a corner,
which preceded a long period of passing the ball around with Everton
not that bothered in winning it back. It was played diagonally eight
to Kane, who tried to hit it on the volley, but it sliced away for a
goal kick.
A late Everton corner was proving difficult to clear, but there was
no threat, as Walcott took an air shot and the danger passed.
Schneiderlin struck a fierce volley that Skipp blocked as close
range and the time ticked away. A few hardy home fans had
remained to clap Tottenham off sportingly.
The game turned out to be a
much easier victory than I thought it might be, as Everton's lack of
spatial awareness left gaps that our forwards and midfielders
exploited with their runs and passes. Everton's formation was
very loose and the fact that they packed the midfield with five men
meant that space should have been at a premium, but with Gomes and
Walcott not interested in tracking players, it left avenues to
penetrate into their defensive third and players could run
unhindered onto the ball from deep positions. The running of
Son and the hold-up play by Kane gave Everton problems they were
unable to answer and with some better finishing, it could quite
easily have been 10-4 at the end.
Once more, the spotlight
shines on Pochettino after this victory, as United won 5-1 away
yesterday at Cardiff and the result will be compared to that one.
It would be great to hear Mauricio say he wasn't going to leave, but
it is a business and while he has moved on before, you would hope
that the culture and relationships he has built up a the club might
persuade him to stay and see the project through.
With 14 wins already this
season (and no draws), the points total of 42 used to be a thing of
late April or even May in years gone by. I wasn't old enough
to be blessed in seeing the Double side, but the football our
current team is playing blows teams away and 6-2 is a Christmas Day
score from yesteryear and it sends hope that we might be able to
challenge for the title with the money rich clubs. We are not
saying we can win it, as we have learned from the two previous
seasons that an exeptional season by another opponent might mean
that they are uncatchable. Spurs will concentrate on what they
are doing and see where they end up come May.
If they can replicate this
sort of performance on a regular basis, it will be a hell of a
season anyway.
Paul Stubbs |
