David Moyes made one change from the Home draw with Manchester United bringing in the goalscorer of the dramatic last gasp equalising goal in Ainsley Maitland Niles for Merlin Rohl who had picked up an (as yet) unspecified injury in that game.
Spurs had new signings Savio, Fernandes and Marmoush all supporting Dominic Solanke up front with Bentancur & £100m man Sandro Tonali in Midfield.
Gray, Van Hecke, Van de Ven & Andy Robertson made up the Spurs defence with Antonin Kinsky in goal for the hosts.
The first action of the game came in the 5th minute and it was the hosts on the attack. Spurs were winless & goalless in attack going into the game and were hoping to end that goalless run as soon as possible by getting on the front foot. Spurs had a free kick opportunity about 25 yards from goal and ex Liverpool player Andy Robertson swung a ball towards the back post towards Van Hecke. Van Hecke made contact on the corner of the 6 yard box to side foot an effort just over the Toffees bar and out for a goal kick.
Matteus Fernandes was the next to get an opportunity for Spurs having been picked out in a bit of space inside the blues box but the Toffees soon snuffed out the danger and Fernandes ended up committing a foul after losing the ball for the opportunity to end in a free kick to Everton.
It took till the 23rd minute for Everton to muster something resembling a meaningful attack but apart from a bit of head tennis in the Spurs penalty area and then a blocked Kiernan Dewsbury Hall shot all the blues could get from a little spell of pressure was a corner kick.
It was to be a first half of Spurs possession but Everton’s defending was such that Spurs could not craft out any meaningful opportunities and Jordan Pickford was having precious little to do in terms of having to save shots from Spurs players.
As half time approached and into the 46th minute Everton had a free kick in a promising position.
James Garner was about 25 yards out on the left hand side and had a cheeky low shot towards goal saved and pushed out by Antonin Kinsky for a blues corner. Everton couldn’t come up with anything from the kick though and the half ended all square at 0-0.
Spurs 1st Half Everton
0.36 XG 0.15
61% Ball Possession 39%
7 Total shots 4
0 Shots on Target 1
1 Big Chances 0
23 Touches in Oppo box 4
In the 50th minute it was Everton who had the first meaningful 2nd half attack. Mykolenko gave the ball to George who was out on the left flank and Tyrique ran at Archie Gray and left him trailing in his wake before reaching the byline and digging out a good cross to the back post for Thierno Barry who had peeled away from his marker to get on the end of the cross inside the box. Kinsky had read the cross and come out to get in front of Barry’s effort and the ball struck the keepers face and went behind for a corner.
Tyrique George flashed a good shot goal wards from a Blues corner but his attempt was blocked by a Spurs player and the ball was cleared.
In the 63rd minute Mateus Fernandes was replaced by Mohammed Kudus for Tottenham and Mathys Tel replaced Dominic Solanke.
Lucas Bergvall also joined the action as a substitute, replacing Rodrigo Bentancur.
Somewhat surprisingly Everton replaced Tyrique George in the 65th minute for the fresh legs of Jack Grealish.
In the 65th minute KDH cut out Kinskys attempted short pass centrally into Tonali to give the blues a wonderful opportunity to take the lead.
Kinsky was at the edge of his area with Dewsbury Hall in possession but the blues midfielder, with Barry standing unmarked to his side, hit his effort straight at the spurs keeper. It was a golden opportunity spurned by the Blues.
In the 68th minute Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall went into the book for a previous late challenge.
The Toffees boss David Moyes made changes in the 75th minute and decided to substitute Ainsley Maitland-Niles for Jake O’Brien plus Hayden Hackney joined the action, replacing Brennan Johnson in a move that left Everton with no real pace on the pitch and no obvious right winger.
In the 75th Minute the blues had another chance to take the lead and after a spell of Everton possession the blues worked the ball into the left hand half space to find KDH who in turn played a lovely ball to pick out Brennan Johnson just inside the Spurs box. Johnsons effort though was a side footed slice across the ball with his foot opened out and the ball missed the target.
The chance was a low xg opportunity but the kind of opportunity that a scorer with Johnsons pedigree of finishing was capable of finding the net with but it wasn’t to be for the blues on this occasion.
in the 77th minute James Maddison come onto the pitch for Omar Marmoush.
James Garner was booked for Everton after committing a foul and then Spurs made another change with Tosin Adarabioyo replacing Archie Gray.
Then in the 87th minute Roberto De Zerbi appeared to have said too much and referee Darren England theatrically showed him a yellow card.
The 89th minute saw Everton gift Spurs an opportunity when they had created nothing during the 2nd half period after Pickford, who’s kicking had been really poor throughout the match, inexplicably played a woeful pass straight to Spurs inside the blues half. Spurs played a couple of passes into Lucas Bergvall on the edge of the blues box and he tried to find the bottom corner with a placed finish but Pickford made up for his initial error with a smart save low to his left.
Everton were to have one final opportunity when in the 91st minute when Hayden Hackney and Jack Grealish played some nice one twos with each other to work the ball in to KDH just inside the penalty area on the left hand side but his effort was blocked and went out for a blues corner.
In the 94th minute Darren England blew his whistle to end the game and the Toffees took a point from a very good defensive performance that could have seen us nick all three points but we couldn’t find the back of the net for the first time this season in all competitions.
The clean sheet was Everton’s second of the season and marked the 100th Premier League clean sheet for Jordan Pickford. Another milestone for the Blues keeper to add to his growing list of personal achievements after landing another save of the month award earlier in the week.
No keeper has more save of the month awards than Jordan.
Everton now look to a League Cup encounter on Wednesday night at Hill Dickinson against Wolves before returning home at the weekend to take on Ipswich who are having no trouble scoring goals on their return to the top flight in what could prove to be a tricky encounter for Everton before the international break arrives.
Spurs 2nd half Everton
0.33 XG 0.96
64% Ball Possession 36%
7 Total shots 8
2 Shots on Target 2
0 Big Chances 2
16 Touches in Oppo box 15
Spurs Overall Everton
0.69 XG 1.11
62% Ball Possession 38%
14 Total shots 12
2 Shots on Target 3
1 Big Chances 2
39 Touches in Oppo box 19
Referee Darren England
Attendance 60,477
About The Author
Leave a Reply