Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Everton

Tottenham Hotspur dropped two points on the road in the early Premier League kick-off this afternoon, with Everton coming from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw.

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

Vicario from corners

The main talking point of the day was Everton’s goal from a corner, with Vicario being bullied on his own goal line for the second time in as many weeks. Similar to the Man City one, you feel for the keeper but it also wasn’t perhaps strong enough to give a penalty. Four or no foul, whatever your opinion, every single team in the league will now stick someone on him, so he needs to be stronger and find a way to deal with it.

Richarlison is on fire!

Nine goals in his last eight Premier League games. Going from a man who couldn’t buy a goal last season to this run of form is nothing short of incredible. What particularly stood out today was that not only did Richarlison get Spurs off to a fast start with an expert finish, but he also grabbed a goal from nothing when Tottenham were second-best at that time in the game. That’s the kind of flash moment from a number 9 Spurs have missed since Harry Kane left.

Set piece problems

Tottenham were far from their best today but arguably did enough to win the game. Where they fell short was two set-piece Everton goals and I’m sure Postecoglou will want to take a look at that. With the Vicario problem, Tottenham should have put their own blocker in front of him the second they caught wind of Everton’s plan but they left him unguarded time and time again. For the second goal, the ball was so good there is very little you can do, but giving away such a silly foul was not good enough for Kulusevski.

Bentancur fatigue

It seems to be that Bentancur is struggling with the pace of the game at the moment, likely due to his two long-term injury lay-offs. Spurs have got enough midfielders back fit now that he doesn’t need to start every game. In fact, he could benefit from a rest and a couple of appearances off the bench for 30 minutes when the opposition are a little tired.

Micky Van de Ven

The silver lining from two dropped points was the performance of one Micky Van de Ven. That man did not deserve to concede a goal today, let alone two. The challenges he put in after showing bursts of recovery pace not only saved goals for Spurs, but also gave the other defenders so much freedom to push higher and higher up the pitch. I have no doubts this kid is going to the very top of the game.