Horror at Goodison

Gomes’ sickening injury shocks players and leaves Son distraught over foul

Everything was overshadowed by what happened to Andre Gomes. Everything felt less important, as both under-pressure managers acknowledged, because of the horrific injury suffered by the Everton midfielder, whose season is over.

Gomes landed terribly after his right ankle went one way and his right leg twisted the other following a challenge by Son Heung-min that saw the Tottenham forward sent off. The ankle was left in such an unnatural angle and at fully 90 degrees to Gomes’s leg.

Goodison Park swirled with emotion. There were tears on the pitch – not least from Son, who caught Gomes, with referee Martin Atkinson showing him a yellow card and then changing it to a red, presumably once the severity of the injury hit him. The VAR, Anthony Taylor, did not intervene with the sending off, later justified by the Premier League because Son had “endangered the safety of a player”.

But in truth, and despite the damage caused, it did not appear to have been the right decision. It was an accident. There was no malice.

However, it remains to be seen whether Spurs appeal against the three-match ban.

Son would not have been able to carry on anyway. He looked broken and in a state of shock by what had happened. The Korean was utterly distraught as he was led away by Tottenham’s first team coach Miguel D’agostino and as other players held their faces, turned away in horror and also broke down in tears incard cluding Serge Aurier, who Gomes had stumbled into. It left Spurs to hold on for the 10 minutes of normal time and the 12 minutes of added time – with two lengthy VAR checks adding to the extra minutes – but they could not do so as substitute Cenk Tosun scored a header in the 97th minute to cancel out Dele Alli’s goal.

Both teams needed to win. But, in the end, it was a game and an outcome that suddenly became less relevant beyond the wait for news on Gomes who was taken to hospital. It eventually emerged that he would undergo surgery on a dislocated and fractured ankle today.

Of Son, Alli said: “He can’t even pick his head up. It’s sad to see.” Everton club captain Seamus Coleman went to the Spurs dressing room to try to console his opponent and manager Marco Silva rightly absolved him of any blame. “It’s hard to put into words. When it happened, it is hard to refocus,” said Everton midfielder Fabian Delph.

It was to his credit, and to the credit of Silva, who gathered players around him and made tactical changes, that they managed to salvage a point when it appeared everything was going against them.

The Everton manager came into this match knowing defeat would pile the pressure on him, while Mauricio Pochettino is also struggling this campaign. The result leaves Everton in 17th, and Spurs down in 11th.

It had seemed the match would be dominated by Alli’s goal, which was timely, with England manager Gareth Southgate in the directors’ box; and by another incident involving the Spurs midfielder when it appeared he had handled inside his own penalty area.

First, the goal, which came in an error-strewn game, after a mistake by Alex Iwobi, who inexplicably passed the ball straight to Son. He released Alli, playing in a more advanced position, and his finish, cutting across Mason Holgate and sliding the ball past Jordan Pickford, was not that of a player who has not scored away from home in the league since January.

That goal came in a victory over Fulham that was Spurs’ last league win on the road. They are winless in the 12 games since. Moments after his goal the attention was again on Alli as he rose with Yerry Mina to try and reach an Everton corner.

The ball brushed against his outstretched arm, but after a delay of more than three minutes it was deemed that it had only happened because of the pressure he was under from Mina.

There was another maddening VAR delay earlier in the second-half when Son went down after Mina slid in to tackle him. Amazingly the VAR check was followed by another one and – eventually – no penalty.

But this system is becoming more maddening and more confusing every weekend.

And to think the first half had passed without incident.

Once again for Spurs Christian Eriksen was deeply disappointing while Iwobi and Theo Walcott struggled badly for Everton.

Spurs had to cope with the loss of Harry Kane who did not even travel to Merseyside through illness and looked bereft without him. It was only when Son was switched more centrally that they threatened while neither goalkeeper was troubled until Paulo Gazzaniga pulled off a fine save to deny Richarlison.

Lucas Digne provided the delivery for Everton’s equaliser which, with the way they re-grouped and showed the determination to overcome the loss of Gomes, they deserved. Tosun beat his own team-mate and fellow substitute Dominic Calvert-lewin to head beyond Gazzaniga.

“This one is for you, brother,” Tosun later posted on social media, referencing Gomes.

The final whistle was blown and the game lasted 104 minutes and 52 seconds, four minutes longer than any other Premier League match this season. It felt symbolic as both sides are still waiting for their seasons to start.

But, cruelly, Gomes’s campaign has seemingly already ended.