Everton 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs crumble against the Toffees

An injury-ravaged Tottenham Hotspur side was embarrassed at Goodison Park when Dr. Everton wins his first Premier League win under David Moyes, 3-2.

Seeing the squad Ange had to roll out, it was clear that today’s game would speak volumes about what he needs to do structurally and the help he needs to have any chance of seeing this rebuild.

Rolling out a 3-4-3 formation with Archie Gray in some flex-option role, the passing was poor against Everton’s pressure as, right from the opening whistle, the home side looked to get the ball away from the stony side.

Everton scored the first of their three goals in the first half in the 13th minute. The struggling Dominic Calvert Lewin – a forward who came into the game 16 games without a goal – received the ball from a Pape Sarr turnover and dribbled his way through Ben Davies, Radu Dragusin and Gray to get a near-post shot past Antonin Kinsky.

Spurs had chances to equalize minutes later from Son Heung-min, with the captain collecting a perfectly square ball from Dejan Kulusevksi and just hitting it straight into the ground and straight at Jordan Pickford.

Son had another moment minutes later when Pickford saved his near post shot from the left and his second chance saw him clipped by Jarrad Branthwaite in the box.

When Spurs failed to equalize when they had the chance, Everton doubled their lead after some dribbling and control from Iliman Ndiaye before firing his shot well over the loving Kinsky.

As the game grew more and more exhausting to watch from a Spurs perspective, another injury struck the side as Dragusin took an elbow to the forehead from DCL following a goal kick. Dragusin, who does not have a big game for the side, is the one true centre-back who had been healthy all season, but he failed to close down space many times in the game, allowing Everton to plague the box with chances.

Everton got their third goal in extra time after an own goal from Gray when his knee fell victim to a poor defensive switch from a corner.

In the second half, Spurs showed more fight when it was determined that Ange had not lost the dressing room. With some care in the second half, Spurs managed to keep Everton out of the net for key stretches.

Spurs got their first goal in the 77th minute when James Maddison recovered the ball on the goal line against a charging Pickford. Mikey Moore kept control and tried to make it good for his team-mates, but the blocked shot landed at Kulusevski’s feet and first time the chip went over the Everton defense for Spurs to finally score.

Spurs got the second goal in the second minute of stoppage time when Moore received the short corner and whipped it to the back post for a free Richarlison to slide in and tap it in as he hit the post.

In the end, the second-half performance was not enough as Spurs concede another goal and have lost 12 Premier League games this season.

This stretch of games was the real test for Spurs with two bottom teams (Everton and Leicester) and the final group stage matches in the Europa League (Hoffenheim, currently 16th in the Bundesliga, and IF Elsborg, 24th in the competition).