Don’t look now, but Tottenham Hotspur are third in the table behind [squints] Arsenal and Bournemouth, and above [squints again] Sunderland on goal differential. This comes after an ugly, but pretty comprehensive 3-0 win over Everton at their shiny new Hill Dickinson Stadium. Micky van de Ven converted two headers off of Spurs corners in the first half and Pape Sarr added a third goal just before full time.
Spurs started the match with a bit of a new look — Randal Kolo Muani made his first Tottenham start of the season, replacing Mathys Tel and Richarlison, both of the latter on the bench. Brennan Johnson also got the start ahead of Wilson Odobert. Kevin Danso continued to deputize for the injured Cuti Romero, while Djed Spence came back into the lineup at left back. The midfield duo of Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur persisted.
Spurs took the early lead thanks to — surprise — a set piece. Mohammed Kudus put a corner to the back post which was directed back into the box by the shoulder of Rodrigo Bentancur. Micky van de Ven jumped highest and headed the chance past Jordan Pickford to put Spurs ahead.
Everton thought they had an equalizer thanks to another corner kick that was headed in by Jake O’Brien midway through the half. However, after a review on the monitor, the match official waved the play off, as both Jack Grealish and Illiman Ndiaye were in an offside position and were impeding Guglielmo Vicario.
Van de Ven did it again in similar circumstances deep into extra time in the first half — Pedro Porro put a corner into the box, Micky gave a little forearm shiver to Pickford to create space, and headed into the back of the net to put Spurs up 2-0 at halftime.
The rain came down in earnest in the second half, and the quality of the football deteriorated in along with the on-pitch conditions. Everton had a few chances to cut into Spurs’ lead including an overhead kick from Beto that forced a spectacular one-handed save from Vicario. Googly Elmo had a couple other saves that were good, if not quite as spectacular, down the stretch.
Tottenham finally put an open play chance together just before extra time — Pedro Porro put in a lovely cross to Richarlison, who squared centrally with his head, finding Pape Sarr who made short work of his chance to put Spurs up 3-0. Spurs easily saw off the rest of the match, handing Everton their first loss at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Here are my match reactions.
Match Reactions:
Tottenham scoring two first half goals after corners — even good ones — while creating literally nothing from open play doesn’t really dispel the idea that Spurs might just be Diet Arsenal this season. Does this mean I have to rationalize all my Legohead takes now? Well, I’m not going to.
Credit to Frank for trying something at least nominally different in attack. I’m not sure whether I liked it or not, but it was something of a refreshing change over what we’ve seen in recent matches.
There was some predictable positional confusion early, especially between Kudus and Brennan Johnson, who didn’t seem to know which player should be at the 10 and which should be wide right. Kolo Muani, meanwhile, spent much of his time drifting out to the left, but spent a lot more time on the ball than we’ve seen from, say, Richarlison. (Richy actually had one saved shot and an assist in his stint, though he still wasn’t as involved as I’d like him to be.)
Some early security issues at the Djed Spence Penitentiary in this one, but nothing a quick patch and the help of an extra gaoler now and again couldn’t fix.
Johnson was deployed very deep, frequently playing and defending behind Pedro Porro, but given license to break into space when appropriate. The writer’s room called it “strikerback” and honestly it’s not a terrible way to utilize him.
Overall, the defense was rock solid. Danso isn’t flashy, but he gets the job done. Micky is Micky. The fullbacks did their job, and Palhinha, despite a few hospital ball passes, was stodgy in a good way in the middle.
For all we complain at times about Vicario’s passing and his propensity for flapping at corners, the man is an absolute beast at shot stopping. His reflex stop on Beto’s overhead kick was astounding and he had a few other really nice saves in this one. He’s had quite a week.
I’m a little worried about Xavi. His passing was pretty lackluster in this one, and he didn’t look like he was moving right after the lengthy delay to look at his knee. I’m glad he continued to play but I hope this doesn’t portend something more serious that we’ll find out later when he posts from his hospital bed.
Even though he had no shots and didn’t muster much in the way of creating chances (nobody did, tbf) I was pleased with Kolo Muani’s match. Was he GOOD? It’s complicated, but he was quite useful in buildup around Everton’s box and certainly was more involved than Richarlison lately.
OK, there was ONE thing that was super pretty in this one — Spurs’ third goal, from Porro’s delivery to Richarlison’s header to Sarr’s tap-in — was really, really pretty and nice. Can we do that more often? I feel like we’d be much happier if we did that more often.
Overall this was an ugly match that equaled the late weather conditions. There are some new wrinkles from Thomas Frank that you can hang your hat on, but Tottenham still is a football team that just isn’t very much fun to watch right now. I’ll have to console myself with a shutout win that hands Everton their first loss in their new stadium and that sends Spurs up to third in the table, I guess.
Spurs now travel UP NORF to play at Newcastle in the EFL Cup on Wednesday before returning home for *swallows hard* Chelsea on November 1.
