An injury-depleted Tottenham Hotspur squad was embarrassed at Goodison Park as Dr. Tottenham delivered another performance for a reeling side, with Everton getting its first Premier League win under David Moyes, 3-2.
Seeing the squad Ange had to roll out, it was apparent that today’s game would say a lot about what he would have to do structure-wise and the help he needs to have any chance to see this rebuild out.
Rolling out a 3-4-3 formation with Archie Gray in some flex option role, the passing was poor against Everton’s press as the home side, from the opening whistle, looked to get the ball off the rocky squad.
Everton scored the first of its three first-half goals in the 13th minute. The struggling Dominic Calvert Lewin — a striker who entered the match 16 consecutive games goalless — received the ball off a Pape Sarr turnover and dribbled his way through Ben Davies, Radu Dragusin, and Gray to slot a near post shot past Antonin Kinsky.
Spurs had chances to get an equalizer minutes later from Son Heung-min, with the captain getting a perfect squared ball from Dejan Kulusevksi and just striking it straight into the ground and right at Jordan Pickford.
Son had another moment minutes later as Pickford saved his near post shot from the left side, and his second chance saw him clipped by Jarrad Branthwaite in the box.
With Spurs failing to level it when they had the chance, Everton doubled its lead off a bit of dribbling and control from Iliman Ndiaye before firing his shot well above the charing Kinsky.
As the game became increasingly depleting to watch from a Spurs perspective, another injury hit the side as Dragusin got an elbow to the brow from DCL off a goal kick. Not having a great stretch of play for the side, Dragusin is the one true center-back who had been healthy all season, but he failed many times in the game to close down space, which allowed Everton to torment the box with chances.
Everton had its third goal scored in extra time off an own goal from Gray as his knee became the victim of a bad defensive shift off a corner.
In the second half, Spurs showed more fight as it was stated that Ange had not lost the dressing room. With some care in the second half, Spurs managed to keep Everton out of the net in important stretches.
Spurs got their first goal in the 77th minute as James Maddison recovered the ball by the goal line against a charging Pickford. Keeping control and trying to square it up for teammates, Mikey Moore had a chance, but the blocked shot landed at Kulusevski’s feet, and the first time, the chip went over the Everton defense for Spurs to finally get on the scorer sheet.
Spurs got the second goal in the second minute of stoppage time as Moore got 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 fight wasn’t enough as Spurs lose another one goal game and have lost 12 Premier League matches this season.
This stretch of games was the real test for Spurs with two bottom-half sides (Everton and Leicester) and the final group stage games of the Europe League (Hoffenheim, who are currently 16th in the Bundesliga, and IF Elsborg, who are 24th in the competition).
