Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Everton

Tottenham failed to see out yet another Premier League victory yesterday evening as Everton fought back from 1-0 down to steal a point at Goodison. 

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:

Top four – 

We go around the exact same circle week after week. Rivals drop points. Spurs have a chance to cement their position and overtake other clubs. Tottenham fail to beat a team at the bottom of the table. Whoever gets fourth this season is likely going to be the best of a bad bunch, but Spurs don’t even look good enough to earn that title at the moment.

Danjuma missing –

What on Earth has Danjuma got to do to earn some minutes on the pitch? With his history with Everton, it seemed written for him to come off the bench and score a meaningful goal. Unfortunately, he would have to actually come off the bench for that to happen. Surely, with Lucas Moura now banned, the Villarreal winger will get a chance next week, right?

Scared Tottenham – 

It doesn’t seem to matter which players are on the pitch or which manager is in the dugout, Spurs have always looked scared when defending a lead in important moments – for as long as I have watched them. They were 1-0 up against a 10-man Everton yesterday and looked like a non-league club trying to see out an FA Cup upset. It was embarrassing. If that was Man City or another big club, they would have effortlessly knocked the ball around and left ten-man Everton chasing shadows until the final whistle.

Free brownie points for Stellini – 

I know Stellini doesn’t want to drastically change anything and leave Spurs playing catch-up for the rest of the season, but I fail to see the logic. By all means, if Plan A was even close to working, then crack on. But it isn’t. Literally, all Stellini has to do is set the team up to attack or switch to a back four and the fans would applaud him even if we don’t win. Just take the free plaudits, please.

Harry Kane controversy –

I laughed when I saw Kane go down holding his face. I knew that 90% of players in the Premier League would do exactly the same, and have done the exact same this season. But because it was Harry Kane, I knew that Twitter would explode with criticism. It has become so popular to put him in the spotlight and hold him to ridiculous standards that no one else is held to.

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