T’riffic. An excellent performance, three points and a psychological slap in the face to those who hoped that we wouldn’t make the most of our Game In Hand. Other teams sometimes roll Everton over but we never do and as usual had to earn any points we took from them. They had a number of chances including one for Saha in the first minute that he might have done better with and also could have had a penalty near the end when Kaboul went into Drenthe clumsily. Overall though we were by far the better team and dominated. They struggled to get the ball off us and were under pressure for long periods.
There were outstanding displays throughout the team with Walker, Kaboul, Modric, Livermore, Van der Vaart all prominent but the MOTM performance came from Assou-Ekotto who, perhaps because Everton were too distracted by Bale, lorded over his side of the pitch. His audacious cross field ball to Lennon for the first goal was matched by the thunderbolt of a strike for the second even if it did clip Cahill on the way through. His quick disappearance down the tunnel at the end rather than stay on the pitch to milk the applause will just add to his maverick reputation.
Jake Livermore will and should be very pleased with the way he played. Losing Parker and Sandro together was a big blow to the side but Livermore stepped up and supplied energy and assurance in the middle in probably his best game in a Spurs shirt.
Adebayor gave another enigmatic performance. He spends a lot of time offside (though wasn’t too bad in this game), his first touch is erratic and he moans at referees too much. That makes him sound shocking but the runs & work he puts in up front plus the way he dovetails with Bale and VdV make him invaluable. He’s vital to us and we’ll miss him at City.
It was a good game with both sides playing well. There was a large Everton following most of whom had bought their tickets in August I’d hazard. We dictated the tempo of the game, upping it at nil nil to get the first goal and killing it dead at the end of each half. Good support from all around the ground contributed to a top evening out. Joint second. Pass the oxygen.
By MF
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