TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
4 EVERTON
0
   
(2) (0)
  Date : –  Saturday 24th August 2024
Kick off : –  15.00
  Competition : – Premier League
Venue : –   Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
  Crowd : –  61,357
  Referee : –  Anthony Taylor (Manchester) Linesmen : – Mr. Gary Beswick; Mr. Adam Nunn
  Fourth official : –  Tom Nield
  VAR official : – Andy Madley VAR Assistant : – Harry Lennard
  Weather : – Wet – rain on and off throughout; sun at end of game
  Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Park Lane end
  Playing time : –   90 + 10 minutes

 

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR EVERTON
GOAL-SCORERS
      Bissouma  13m 47s  (assist Kulusevski)   None
      Son  24m 33s
      Romero  70m 17s  (assist Maddison)
      Son  76m 52s  (assist van de Ven)
  CARDS
    None   None
   
TEAM
1.   Guglielmo VICARIO 1.   Jordan PICKFORD
     
23.   Pedro PORRO 19.   Vitaly MYKOLENKO
17.   Cristian ROMERO  6.   James TARKOWSKI (c)
37.   Micky van de VEN  5.   Michael KEANE
13.   Destiny UDOGIE  (  24.   Djed SPENCE  73)   75.   Roman DIXON
      
21.   Dejan KULUSEVSKI    (  29.   Pape Matar SARR  67)  45.   Tim  IROEGBUNAM
10.   James MADDISON    (  15.   Lucas BERGVALL  79)   27.   Idrissa GUEYE  (  2.   Harrison ARMSTRONG  90+1) 
8.   Yves BISSOUMA    (  14.   Archie GRAY  73)      
7.   Dwight McNEIL
22.   Brennan JOHNSON 16.   Abdoulaye DOUCOURE  (  10.   Illiman NDIAYE  57)  
7.   Heung-Min SON  (c)    11.   Jack HARRISON  (  29.   Jesper LINDSTROM  57)  
28.   Wilson ODOBERT   (  9.    RICHARLISON  66)      
9.   Dominic CALVERT-LEWIN  (  14.   BETO  72)  
Substitutes Substitutes
  20.   Fraser FORSTER 12.   Joao VIRGINIA
  33.   Ben DAVIES 4.   Mason HOLGATE
  6.   Radu DRAGUSIN 44.   Jenson METCALFE
  16.   Timo WERNER 15.   Jake O’BRIEN
  21.   Neal MAUPAY

    = Assist        =  Goal scored       =  Own goal scored

Manager : – Ange Postecoglou Manager : –  Sean Dyche
Kit Supplier : – Nike Kit Supplier : –  Castore
Shirt Sponsor : – AIA Shirt Sponsor : – Stake.com
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Kraken Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – Christopher Ward
Colours : –  White shirts with Navy Blue arms, Navy Blue shorts, White socks with Navy Blue turnover
Colours : –  All very, very dark green with yellow trim
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT
  With Sean Dyche claiming that his squad was down to 14 players, not even the bare bones were on display as a desperately miserable performance ended in a 4-0 defeat for them, with Spurs almost at testimonial pace at the end, such was the ease of this victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It was not the sort of weather that you associate with the first home game of the season, with rain of various weight falling throughout the match and Spurs kicked off, unfamiliarly attacking the Park Lane end in the first half.  And attack they did, right from the start, Everton were back-pedalling as Tottenham pushed up the pitch.

The ball had fizzed across the face of the Everton goal in the first minute, as Maddison looked for a white shirt, but it resulted in a corner and from it being played back in after a clearance, Cristian Romero was inside the box to the right and thundered a shot that Pickford beat out.  Porro tried to find debutant Wilson Odobert at the far post was just too far in front of him and on the other wing, Maddison and Odobert were linking well to create chances, with Son hitting one that deflected off Tarkowski, which made the keeper’s save easier, although it was made to look spectacular.  It was a fluid Spurs system which saw Son and Maddison dropping deep to pick up the ball, with Everton’s players clueless as to whether to follow them or get back into their formation.

It took ten minutes for Everton to make the Tottenham defence work, with their new signing Ibuprofen released into the left side of the box, but Romero had smelled the danger and came across to block the cross for a corner.  It seemed that they weren’t even bothering with last season’s successful tactic of standing on Vicario at set-pieces, so the corner was dealt with easily, but moving the ball forward, Romero picked out an accurate chip over the Blues’ defence to Maddison making a run into the box.  Whether it was the rainy weather or the bounce of the ball, but it wouldn’t sit down for James and when it did, Pickford was on him to block the shot. 

When the Toffees put the ball out with a pass intended for McNeil, Spurs enjoyed a long passing sequence that took the ball from the left wing to the right and then Kulusevski exchanged passes with Brennan Johnson, and although a tackle took the ball back to Dejan, the Swede had the presence of mind to spot Yves Bissouma lurking just outside the box to his left.  Having been restored to the line-up after his one match ban for using Nitrous Oxide, the Mail midfielder smashed it first time in off the underside of the bar to give Spurs a 14th minute lead.  His celebration appeared to acknowledge his misdemeanour and while he had been chided by Ange Postecoglou for his previous goal this season in “just a friendly”, this one counted and was nothing more than Spurs deserved for their dominant strike.

Everton’s response was a long, straight ball into the Spurs box, but Romero was quickly over to take it away from Calvert-Lewin for a corner.  Once more, they failed to pressure Vicario and Spurs cleared with a little help for some shirt-pulling and pushing going on and Romero put it out for a throw.  From that, McNeil found a deep cross from the right that went to Harrison coming in beyond the far post unmarked, but his weak volley went wide.   In trying to play the ball out, Maddison was dragged back by his neck by Ibuprofen, with only a foul given and the former Villa midfielder repeated the same foul later and a couple more without the referee administering any punishment by card.  

Son had obviously been instructed to close Pickford down quickly when he had the ball at his feet and when Everton got a throw-in in front of the East Stand, which should have gone to Tottenham, it was thrown back to Tarkowski, who played it back to the keeper.  Pickford’s first touch was to knock it a few yards away onto this left foot, but Sonny chased him down and nicked the ball away, taking a kick in the process.  He could have gone down for a penalty, but regained his feet to slot the ball into the net from the right of the goal with his right foot.  The England goalkeeper had been given warnings previously in the match, but failed to heed them, so it was Tottenham going 2-0 ahead with 25 minutes gone.

The failure to secure that second goal on Monday at Leicester had cost Spurs in the end, but here the game was mainly being played in the Everton half and having the two goal buffer it allowed them to play with even more freedom.  With Odobert and Kulusevski playing wide, it stretched the Everton team and left pockets for other players to drop into.  However, Spurs had to be on their guard and when Vicario got the ball stuck under his feet, the pressure on him forced a turnover and only Romero blocking Doucoure as he came into the box and Porro following in, managed to smuggle it back to the keeper.

Rarely have I seen a side with so little about them in any game as Everton today.  Their movement and passing was exceedingly poor, there was little pressing and the overall feel was that few of them wanted to be there.  The only worries for Tottenham were when Udogie took a kick and Micky van de Ven went down looking to have hyper-extended his leg causing a problem with his knee.  Destiny shrugged it off and Micky played on after treatment.  

Just before half-time, the visitors had a three corners and a free-kick that caused scrambles with Porro and Maddison hacking the ball away and then Tottenham won a couple of corners in added time with Porro curling the final one just wide of the angle of the goal.

After the break Romero repeated his ball over the top for James Maddison to run into in the area, but it just skipped away from him allowing Pickford to gather the ball.  A fantastic cross-field ball by Maddison found Johnson in acres of space and reaching the area, he looked to square it for Son and Udogie, but Mykolenko slid in to take the ball out for a corner.  

Pedro Porro was taking a bit of a kicking throughout the match, with a nasty incident leaving him in pain as Calvert-Lewin sunk his studs into the back of his calf while he was on the floor.  The referee took his time over actually awarding a free-kick, but didn’t regard it as anything sinister.  A loose pass inside from Odobert gave McNeil the opening to run forward and a challenge on him took the ball into the path of substitute Lindstrom.  With his first touch of the game, he drove a shot at goal that Vicario had to be alert to and beat out.  It had been a long time coming and Everton first real threat on target had come just before the hour mark.

When Son was tripped inside the D, Maddison took the free-kick, driving it a couple of yards wide of Pickford’s left-hand post.  It was a corner won by Son off Dixon that Maddison played into the middle of the six-yard box and rising above and between Keane and Tarkowski was Cristian Romero to thump a header that went into the net off the underside of the bar.  On his 100th appearance for Tottenham, it was fitting that he should grab a goal.

As the players returned to line up for the kick off, Spurs made two subs with Bissouma replaced by Archie Gray and Destiny Udogie (who had gone to ground after the goal) by Djed Spence.  Everton brought on Beto for the ineffective Calvert-Lewin to generally look bulky and slow and to commit a few fouls and be offside.  When McNeil looked to play in Lindstrom, who was inside the Spurs box, Micky van de Ven picked it off inside his own D and started to make strides forward.  And he can make big strides, setting off on a run that would take him to the edge of the Everton D before passing left to Heung-Min Son.  The Spurs captain took one touch with his right foot and then delivered a low shot with his left from a narrow angle that went through Pickford’s legs and into the far side of the goal.  It was a magnificent run by VDV and although Dixon tried to catch him, Micky was just too fast and too strong for the youngster.  There was still some work to do by Sonny, but he was clinical and the chances missed at Leicester were now a distant memory as we put Everton to the sword.  The fourth goal was enough for many of the visiting fans, some of whom had had enough by the third, leaving large expanses of blue seats among the Blues fans.

With five minutes left, the sun started to shine down on the pitch and Everton looked to move into the Tottenham box, but Djed Spence was quickly across to block off a run by Lindstrom.  Substitute 17 year old Harrison Armstrong’s first touch was a dangerous ball into the goalmouth, which Romero cut out with his knee with the ball going wide for a corner, when it could have gone anywhere.  The corner was dealt with well and when Richarlison took a pass, he turned two Everton players, only for one of them, Ibuprofen, to bring him down. 

In the end, it was as straightforward a win as you could imagine.  There was little fight put up by Everton, which was unusual for a Dyche team.

I have to admit that Dwight McNeil went on some good runs, but they were mainly in the wrong direction, going back towards his own goal.  Ironically, Everton’s best performer was their 19 year old debutant Roman Dixon, who was thrown into the side and got a roasting early on from the new Spurs man Odobert, but stuck at his task and showed some more defensive nous than the rest of his team-mates.  However, such was the straightforward nature of Tottenham’s win that both Porro and Romero were able to do pirouettes on the ball each time leaving two Everton players looking bewildered as the ball was moved away from them.   And there were a couple more comical incidents today too.  When Porro looked to dart between Keane and Gueye, they closed the door on him to block him off but knocked his arm, which came up into Keane’s face and caught him on the nose with his elbow.  Porro was holding his elbow, as Keane had nose-butted it and Romero came over to fist-bump him !  The Everton defender needed treatment before he could continue !  Then, after the match had ended, the Tottenham players went on their lap applauding the fans, while Richarlison first made his way over to the Everton support to acknowledge his former club’s few brave remaining fans.  It was telling that he went over to give his Spurs shirt to one of them, while when the Everton players looked to show their appreciation to the fans, they did so from a much more distant part of the pitch.  One last thought is how bad must Neal Maupay be not to get in this Everton side ?  Maybe his main asset being winding players up isn’t enough to be a Premier League footballer any more.

We shouldn’t forget that these are the early days of the season and Everton looked destined to be in another relegation battle, as they claim to have no money, but what they have spent doesn’t look like it has been well spent.  You can only beat what is put out in front of you, so Tottenham did that and also managed to keep a rare clean sheet, so an all round good day.

Levi Barrington

 

MATCH NOTES
 
  • Cristian Romero made his 100th Spurs appearance.
  • Wilson Odobert makes his Tottenham debut.
  • Tottenham recorded their 50th home win against Everton.
  • Ben Davies was presented with an award by Ledley King to mark the Welshman’s10 years with the club.
  • Harrison Armstrong and Roman Dixon made their Everton debuts.

 

OTHER RESULTS
  Brighton & Hove Albion 2 Mancashter United 1
  Crystal Palace 0 West Ham United London 2
  Ipswich Town 1 Mancashter City 4
  Fulham 2 Leicester City 1
  South Coast Big Club 0 Nottingham Forest 1
  Aston Villa 0 Woolwich Wanderers 2
  AFC Bournemouth 1 Newcash United 1
  Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Chelsea 6
  Liverpool 2 Brentford 1


Premier League Table 2024-25

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Mancashter City 2 2 0 0 6 1 6 +5
2 Brighton & Hove Albion 2 2 0 0 5 1 6 +4
3 Woolwich Wanderers 2 2 0 0 4 0 6 +4
4 Liverpool 2 2 0 0 4 0 6 +4
5 Tottenham Hotspur 2 1 1 0 5 1 4 +4
6 Newcash United 2 1 1 0 2 1 4 +1
7 Nottingham Forest 2 1 1 0 2 1
4 +1
8 Chelsea 2 1 0 1 6 4 3 +1
9 West Ham United London 2 1 0 1 3 2 3 +1
10 Fulham 2 1 0 1 2 2 3 0
11 Mancashter United 2 1 0 1 2 2 3 0
12 Aston Villa 2 1 0 1 2 3 3 -1
13 Brentford 2 1 0 1 2 3 3 -1
14 AFC Bournemouth 2 0 2 0 2 2 2 0
15 Leicester City 2 0 1 0 2 3 1 -1
16 South Coast Big Club 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 -2
17 Crystal Palace 2 0 0 2 1 4 0 -3
18 Ipswich Town 2 0 0
2 1 6 0 -5
19 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 0 0 2 2 8 0 -6
20 Everton 2 0 0 2 0 7 0 -7