HORROR INJURY FOR EVERTON STAR GOMES

A SICKENING injury to Everton midfielder Andre Gomes overshadowed this clash at Goodison Park, which eventually saw sub Cenk Tosun’s stoppage-time header cancel out Dele Alli’s opener for Tottenham. The Portuguese international was caught by a late challenge by Son Heung-min but it was the way he fell awkwardly — as Serge Aurier closed in — which did the damage, with his right ankle seemingly at right angles to his shin. Son was initially yellow-carded for his part in the horror incident before being shown red by referee Martin Atkinson. A sombre silence descended on the ground, with Son in tears as he walked off down the tunnel. There was a 12-minute delay as Gomes was treated and stretchered from the field, which had an understandably deflating effect on proceedings before Tosun headed home eight minutes into stoppage-time. Everton boss Marco Silva, who refused to comment on Son’s challenge, said: ‘He (Gomes) went to the hospital and now our medical staff are taking control of everything and there will be more information when it’s a bit more clear. ‘It’s more than a football game, it’s the most important thing right now and we’ll give all our support to him and to his family as well. I cannot talk to you about the card colour or these things because I didn’t see the tackle.’ Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino also sent his best wishes to Gomes, but insisted Atkinson was wrong to dismiss Son. ‘It’s a bad situation, very bad luck how he landed. We send our best wishes and, of course, we are devastated with the situation,’ said Pochettino. ‘It’s not important, football. We’re feeling bad, feeling sorry and very devastated because it’s so, so difficult. ‘Sonny was devastated. In that moment it was very confused, difficult to keep calm, you watch the reaction on TV — it was never the intention and never a tackle to do what happened after. ‘It was very bad luck for Andre, bad luck for Everton, but to finish with a red card for Sonny was really unfair.’

Alli’s first Premier League away goal since January looked like giving the visitors their first win on the road in ten months until Tosun’s late intervention. A goalless first half saw Pochettino move Son to centre-forward and switch Lucas Moura to the right. The impact was almost immediate as Son went down under a challenge from Yerry Mina in which, after a long referral, VAR backed Atkinson’s decision not to award a penalty. In the 63rd minute, Alex Iwobi’s errant pass went straight to Son, who slipped in Alli to beat Jordan Pickford. Then Alli was almost the villain when the ball appeared to hit his arm as he challenged Mina, who may have been deemed to have impeded the midfielder. Another VAR decision ruled no penalty and Goodison howled its disapproval.