Spurs ride their luck to return to top four
Dyche left fuming as strike is wiped out
ANGE POSTECOGLOU appeared on the big screens with a pre-match promise to deliver festive treats to the Tottenham family and a couple of hours later they were toasting a return to the top four of the Premier League.
In between, however, it proved to be anything but a cosy home win. Spurs were two up inside 18 minutes with goals from Richarlison and Son Heung-min but their makeshift defence took a pummelling for long periods in the second half.
Guglielmo Vicario excelled before Andre Gomes finally reduced the deficit and then produced more fine saves as his team clung on.
Vicario deserved his good fortune in the fourth minute of stoppage time when a volley by Arnaut Danjuma hit the bar, crashed down against the goalkeeper and spun to safety. Most but not all of the ball was over the line according to goalline technology.
Sean Dyche though was fuming about another decision as he left London, a VAR intervention early in the second half to wipe out a goal scored by Dominic Calvert-Lewin for a foul by Andre Gomes on Emerson Royal, who had been played into trouble by his goalkeeper and could not wait to fall over for a free-kick.
‘That’s not enough contact for me on a mature professional footballer,’ said Dyche. ‘They’re lean and fit and yet minimal contact puts them on the floor. I’m a fan of VAR but they over-reffed the moment and goals change games.’
Postecoglou, needless to say, thought that it was a foul. ‘I don’t like VAR,’ said the Spurs boss. ‘It’s a tool, it’s used and I still don’t like it. Did it help us? I don’t know. If that goal stood, we might have scored a third.’
By this stage, Tottenham had lost the grip they had when Richarlison fired them ahead, converting a low cross from Brennan Johnson in the eighth minute. The Brazilian forward was on target for the third game in a row. The last time he managed a run like that, he was an Everton player, back in March 2021.
Tottenham’s speed and mobility in attack was exceptional and yet, as ever with Postecoglou’s teams, the game was frantic and wide open, and Everton had 17 efforts at goal.
Two good early opportunities fell to Calvert-Lewin. With the game goalless, he raced clear onto a pass by Dwight McNeil only for Christian Romero to make a fabulous recovery tackle. At one down, he miscued a header enabling Vicario to make a save and these misses took on added significance when Son stretched Tottenham’s lead.
Jordan Pickford saved from Johnson after a short corner routine involving Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski, and Son pounced on the rebound, steering it through a crowd into a bottom corner.
It took him onto 11 goals in the Premier League, one more than in the whole of last season. Spurs will miss their captain when he goes to the Asian Cup with South Korea after the home game against Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve.
The visitors improved with Gomes on for Idrissa Gueye, injured committing a foul. Vicario made saves from James Garner and Jack Harrison, and Vitaliy Mykolenko missed the target with a chance made much trickier by the sudden appearance of a second ball in his eye line. ‘Two balls and you still can’t score,’ chorused the home fans. Then Calvert-Lewin did find the net and VAR came to the rescue. Spurs lost Romero with a tight hamstring at half-time and Everton continued to press.
Garner clipped the base of a post with a fizzing drive. Pickford saved from Kulusevski before Gomes pulled one back with a fierce drive from a corner.
Spurs were clinging on. Vicario stood tall and Ben Davies cleared a James Tarkowski header off the line. Then last chance fell to Danjuma, on loan at Tottenham last season, from another McNeil cross.
There was a flag up but it was against Beto not Danjuma, whose effort crashed into the woodwork, hit Vicario’s leg and spun out. The goal-line technology ruled it was not quite over line.
‘Sometimes you’ve just got to defend, and we did,’ said Postecoglou. ‘Vic was outstanding. He’s been brilliant from day one and we haven’t always needed him but today we needed his goalkeeping and he stood up really well.’
SPURS (4-3-3): Vicario 8.5; Porro 7.5, Romero 7 (Dier 46min, 6), Davies 7, Royal 6; Sarr 6.5 (Lo Celso 73), Skipp 6.5, Kulusevski 7; Johnson 7.5, Richarlison 7 (Hojbjerg 63, 6), Son 7. Booked: Kulusevski. Subs (not used): Forster, Gil, Phillips, Veliz, Donley, Dorrington.
EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Pickford 6.5; Patterson 6.5, Tarkowski 7, Branthwaite 7, Mykolenko 6.5; Gueye 6 (Gomes 24, 8), Onana 6.5 (Beto 79); Harrison 6 (Danjuma 66, 7), Garner 7.5, McNeil 7.5; Calvert-Lewin 6.5. Booked: Patterson, Gueye, Gomes, Onana. Subs (not used): Virginia, Lonergan, Keane, Godfrey, Chermiti, Hunt. Referee: S Attwell (Warwickshire) 6.5.