It was an afternoon when Tottenham scored their goals early and found they were enough. They came from the former Everton striker Richarlison, for whom it is now four in three games, and the inevitable Son Heung-min. So, three Premier League wins out of three for Spurs; their recent wobble feeling further and further away.
It barely scratched the surface in terms of the real story, which was one of Everton domination that brought a finale loaded with drama. The visitors’ four-game Premier League winning streak is over but, in the heat of the moment, it was difficult to work out how.
Put it down to the fine margins being against them and an impressive performance from the Spurs goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario. Everton had raged when a Dominic Calvert-Lewin finish on 50 minutes was disallowed by the VAR for a foul in the build-up by the substitute André Gomes.
But when Gomes, in his first football of the season, scored the goal Everton deserved, in the 82nd minute, guiding home after a corner had been half-cleared to him, it was the trigger for the Spurs support to live on the end of their nerves.
Arnaut Danjuma, who was on loan at Spurs for the second half of last season, was the central figure. On as a substitute, the winger worked Vicario with one shot and lifted another over the crossbar after Everton had broken. In between times, the Everton captain, James Tarkowski, had a header from a corner cleared off the line by Ben Davies and then we had the madness of the dying seconds.
When Dwight McNeil crossed from the right, the assistant referee flagged for offside, presumably against the substitute Beto. But Danjuma, ghosting in on the far side, looked on. He hammered a volley up and against the crossbar and down into Vicario’s leg. Did the ball cross the line? Cue the technology showing that, by a matter of millimetres, the whole of it had not. Spurs were off the hook.
Everton had brought the equal third-best defensive record in the division to London – four consecutive clean sheets, too – and it felt a long time ago that they were breached for the first time, having started brightly. Spurs’ incision up the inside right was created by a Pape Sarr pass and a dummy from Oliver Skipp. Brennan Johnson was in and his low cross was made to measure for Richarlison, who had broken away from Tarkowski.
Ange Postecoglou’s tactic of getting his full-backs high up and across, of flooding other runners up the channels, especially Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski, gave Everton a problem at the outset. Spurs almost made it 2-0 when Emerson Royal, who filled in at left-back, sprinted on to a Son pass up the left to cross for Johnson, who lifted over. When Spurs next got in up the other side, they gave themselves a cushion.
Calvert-Lewin had failed to summon the needed power on a header when well-placed, which allowed Vicario to save; a decent chance passed up. Now Spurs turned the screw after a smart short corner. It was Kulusevski who played the pass up the channel to Johnson, who watched Jordan Pickford beat away his shot. Son returned the rebound with interest from 12 yards.
Everton gathered themselves and it was no exaggeration to say that from about the 40th minute the game was pretty much all about them. Their purple patch at the end of the first half was deep and Spurs were indebted to Vicario, who made big saves to deny James Garner and Jack Harrison.
Calvert-Lewin had also narrowly missed Harrison with a cut-back and there was a bizarre moment when, with an extra ball on the field to the left of the Spurs box, Vitalii Mykolenko ran on to a cross from Nathan Patterson into precisely the same area. Which ball to hit? He chose the active one but dragged it wide while he then fell into the inactive one. “Two balls and you still can’t score,” sang the Spurs support.
Spurs were without eight players through injury and suspension and Cristian Romero would not emerge after half‑time, having tweaked his hamstring. On came Eric Dier. Makeshift barely described their defence for the second half.
It is fair to say Everton have been on the wrong end of decisions from the authorities in recent weeks. They suffered again when Calvert-Lewin’s effort was pulled back. Vicario played Emerson into trouble and Gomes, who had replaced the injured Idrissa Gueye, robbed him – illegally, it would be decided. There was contact but it felt as though Emerson was looking for it. Are these the kind of borderline VAR interventions that we want?
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Sean Dyche certainly does not. “I’m a big fan of VAR,” the Everton manager said. “I don’t know where that one lives today because VAR has reffed the moment where the referee and linesperson have got amazing views and they’ve clearly made the decision.
“That goes out of the window because they’ve found contact and they will find contact. That’s not enough for me to make a mature professional footballer go to ground.”
Everton continued to push. Garner took down a lovely chip from Harrison and banged a shot off the outside of the far post and after Kulusevski had worked Pickford at the other end nobody could argue the visitors were not value for their goal. Try as they did, they could not add to it.
