It does not happen that often. When Spurs are playing bad then they normally lose. Thomas Frank told us at the start of the season. He will get the defence right first and then focus on the attack. And this is exactly what he is doing. Spurs are not leaky anymore. We have conceded 7 goals and only Arsenal have conceded less this season. But the perception is we are not scoring goals. But we are. We have the joint most goals scored in the Premiership this season. 17 which is level with Man City. So Spurs are conceding very little, scoring alot but yet we are not playing well. I wonder what will happen when we do start playing well. But when you say playing well these days what does someone mean?? The game is now full of long throws , corners and set pieces. It is no longer viable to play out from the back and pass your way to a goal. Now the game back to the long ball tactics and moving the ball up the pitch. There are 100 towels around the pitch so the longest throwers can pinpoint where they will put it. One knockdown in the box and its a goal as seen last night with Liverpool and brentford which was a masterclass in that style of play from Keith Andrew's side.
Spurs again hampered with the injury to Solanke with "Soreness" to his ankle. Point to note that Bayerns Musiala has broken his ankle and is back playing ever since Big Dom was diagnosed with his sore ankle. But I digress. Spurs named Muani up front for the first time after his few games out with a dead leg. Jeez Louise. Our medical department has always been under scrutiny but I can tell why.
Any the team was
Muani
Simons
Johnson
Kudus
Palinha
Bentancur
Porro
Spence
Ven Der Ven
Danso
Vicario
After Vicario's masterclass against Monaco he was giving pep talks to all the players. Insufferable I would imagine but part of the leadership group now so it is his job. After 19 minutes Van Der Vien scored from a header. It was a textbook training ground corner with Kudus taking a corner to the back post. Heading back in by Bentancur and Van Der Ven glanced it home. 1-0 to Spurs. Great move. A few minutes later Everton had an equaliser with another cross which Jake O Brien converted. But Grealish was holding back Vicario. Now there was no foul there but the player was indeed interfering with play and the goal was called offside after a 5 minute VAR wait. Everton had the most of the possesion for the rest of the first half until another corner where again Kudus crossed in . Van Der Ven this time just jumped higher than everyone his time and scored his 2nd header of the day right at the end of stoppage time of the first half. 2-0 up, both from set pieces and not playing great.
With the second half it was more of the same but Spurs tightened up to bring the win home. With one eye on Newcastle Bergvall replaced Simons and Richarlison replaced Muani and Sarr replaced Kudus. Spurs held out very well with the central defence just heading out anything that came their way. Sarr popped up in the end for the 3rd goal. Spurs were home and dry. Point to note that Sarr did not celebrate due to a problem back in Ghana with another player Cheikh Toure a Senegalese goalkeeper who died unexpectantly in Ghana.
A solid win for Spurs. There was not much Everton did wrong really. Just set pieces in the end gave it to Spurs. I was very motivated by the display. This is 2 games now which we drew and won and we did not play great. Spurs play Newcastle this Wednesday and also play Chelsea on Saturday night. This will be the real test. We also have Arsenal ,PSG and United this month. November particularly against Chelsea is when the wheels typically fall off for Spurs. You may recall the 4-2 game against Chelsea two seasons ago when Spurs had 2 men sent off, lost Maddison and Romero to injury and Ange pushed the nice players to the half way line and it was nearly, just nearly a masterclass by Ange. Sonny missed a sitter and Jackson went up and got two easy goals. Anyway it will not be 4-2 next week. Our defence is too solid now. In fact I am confident to go to Chelsea away as they are not in any great shakes themselves. So lets see. Newcastle in the League Cup is an important one but with the Champions League looming and bigger fish to fry , it would not be the end of the world if we got knocked out here.
So it is an important week for Spurs with two big games in the next 7 days. Let's see what Frank can muster up while we await the most needed reenforcements to come back from injury as per usual .
I love the fact that just before Spur's first goal, they flashed up the stat that Everton had not conceeded from a set-piece this season (the only team not to have done so in 25/26). In cricket, you call that the commentators' curse. Usually happens when they are talking about how well a batsmen in playing and then bang, he's out next ball! Keep those stats coming Sky!
Yeah they said they were unbeaten at their new ground Hills Dickens as well. Nice win .