Harry Kane and Jimmy Greaves, Gary Lineker and Gareth Bale, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle, Jurgen Klinsmann and Paul Gascoigne. And now Micky van de Ven. The list of Tottenham’s top scorers in seasons is distinguished indeed but there is an anomaly at the moment, a Dutch defender in the territory previously occupied by Teddy Sheringham, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Clive Allen, Martin Chivers, Bobby Smith and Heung-Min Son.
Van de Ven may be an intrepid interloper in the scoring charts, but he was also a fearless traveller: to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, as Tottenham became the first visitors to win, and to the Everton penalty box to score twice. The Dutchman surprised even himself. “It’s crazy, I never score two goals in one game,” he said. “It always goes through your head that I might get a hat-trick.” That may not be a phrase he has uttered before his brace, along with a Pape Matar Sarr clincher, earned a victory that made the Hill Dickinson look less like a fortress by the Mersey and Tottenham more like a Thomas Frank team.
