The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Spurs send out deadly warning to their rivals

- By Oliver Holt AT THE TOTTENHAM STADIUM

THE song remains the same. Spurs did not play particular­ly well. Their football did not quicken the pulse often. But they won. And they won relatively comfortabl­y.

Not only that, they moved level with Manchester City in second place in the Premier League. If this is what they are like when they are idling, God help the rest of them when they move up through the gears.

If Spurs are still being damned with faint praise, it is perhaps worth noting that they have now won 23 points from their 10 league games this season, a mark which represents their highest points tally at this stage of a top-flight campaign for nearly 60 years. They have resilience and tactical acumen to spare under Antonio Conte and they are stacking up more building blocks with every game.

‘To see the intensity we played with tonight was really positive,’ Conte said after the match, reserving special praise for Matt Doherty, Ivan Perisic and Yves Bissouma.

‘It shows if you work in the right way, the performanc­e of your players is always up. I am delighted for them because this performanc­e repaid the effort they put in every day.’

Harry Kane scored the crucial goal, a second-half penalty he won himself when he was tripped by Jordan Pickford after the England goalkeeper had made a mistake that will give Gareth Southgate something else to worry about as his defence drops all around him. There is no reason to worry about Kane, though. His goal took him within eight of Jimmy Greaves’ all-time Spurs record.

Spurs sealed victory with a late strike from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg but they were grateful to Everton for their profligacy in front of goal.

The visitors missed two gilt-edged chances in the first half and their manager, Frank Lampard, will be worried by their toothlessn­ess in attack. Everton were routed 5-0 here late last season and Lampard appears to have banished the sense of chaos that was enveloping the club then.

The game was not a classic. In an interview that appeared before the game, Richarliso­n, the Brazil striker who left Everton for Spurs in the summer, suggested his departure owed much to a ‘lack of ambition’ at the Merseyside club.

In the context of this match, it was rather an unfortunat­e choice of words. Because this game screamed a lot of things: pragmatism, caution. But not ambition.

Spurs started strongly and Son was creating chances almost from the kick-off. He found Kane with a cross from the left but as the captain tried to glance the ball in, he failed to make proper contact and it bounced off a defender for a corner.

A minute later, Son unlocked the Everton defence again. He clipped a quick free-kick down the left that released Perisic. The Croat crossed to the back post where he found Richarliso­n unmarked but the Brazilian could only balloon his header over the bar.

Son kept going. A few minutes later, he burst into the Everton area between Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye. He tumbled over Gueye’s right leg and the home crowd yelled for a penalty but the referee waved play on.

Midway through the half, though, Everton should have taken the lead. They launched a long ball out of defence and Demarai Gray took it skilfully in his stride as he turned past Rodrigo Bentancur and sprinted clear of him. Neal Maupay was screaming for the ball in the middle but Gray went alone and lifted his shot high over the bar from six yards out.

The visitors missed another golden chance three minutes before the interval. This time, the opportunit­y came from a Spurs mix-up.

Hojbjerg and Cristian Romero both went for a loose ball and when the two of them collided with each other, Amadou Onana raced in on goal, but Onana pushed the ball too far in front of him and lifted his shot just too high.

Spurs hit back on the stroke of half-time when Kane whipped in a cross. Richarliso­n forced his way in front of his marker 10 yards out and met the ball on the volley. Once again, the effort was too high.

The Everton fans behind the goal breathed a sigh of relief. Richarliso­n, who left them for £60million in the summer, was the last man they wanted to score.

He was substitute­d six minutes after the break when he limped off with what looked like a calf injury. We are at the stage of the season now when players have little recovery time left ahead of the

World Cup. If Richarliso­n has torn a muscle, he will be sweating on his place in the Brazil squad for the tournament in Qatar.

Spurs shook off his loss and looked like a better side with his replacemen­t, Bissouma, dominating midfield. Kane stung the hands of Pickford with a volley that he slammed into the turf and which the Everton goalkeeper pushed away.

It was only a brief reprieve for Everton, though. Minutes later, Pickford spilled a shot from Doherty that he really should have held on to and Kane pounced on the rebound.

Kane nudged the ball past Pickford and the keeper brought him down as he desperatel­y tried to recover. The referee pointed to the spot and Kane dispatched the penalty.

Spurs put the game out of reach four minutes from time. Hojbjerg had time to take the ball down and clip a shot towards goal. It came off Alex Iwobi’s shin and the deflection took it beyond Pickford and in.

 ?? ?? NO MISTAKE: Harry Kane blasts home Spurs’ opener from the penalty spot
NO MISTAKE: Harry Kane blasts home Spurs’ opener from the penalty spot

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