Everton match verdict from Joe Thomas following the 3-0 Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Joe Thomas is the Everton FC correspondent for the Liverpool ECHO. He follows the Blues home and away, providing match reports, analysis and insight into events at Goodison Park, Finch Farm and beyond. Joe spent more than a decade covering news on Merseyside, working on award-winning investigations and extensively covering matters related to the Hillsborough tragedy - including the recent criminal prosecutions. Always grateful for tips and feedback, he can be contacted at joe.thomas@reachplc.com and on Twitter via @joe_thomas18
Jack Grealish clashes with referee Craig Pawson during Everton's Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur
Jack Grealish clashes with referee Craig Pawson during Everton's Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur
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Idrissa Gueye held his head in his hands. Jordan Pickford, 35 yards from his goalmouth, shouted in disgust. Jack Grealish looked stunned. Disgusted and stunned. With 20 minutes to go, Everton were two goals down, but it still felt as though they were in this game.
When the ball broke to Grealish, he cut inside and prepared to unleash a counter attack that could have been a route to a comeback, only to have his legs taken from beneath him by Rodrigo Bentancur.
It was a cynical foul and one the midfielder was lucky to escape a booking for. Grealish was not so fortunate, picking up a yellow card for his protest at Craig Pawson’s initial leniency. It was a split-second that summed up this game.
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Pedro Porro had been shown similar favour inside the first 10 minutes when his boot raked down the shins of Grealish. The decisions were not going Everton’s way. That was no clearer than through the major, contentious calls upon which this game swung. It is why Pawson left the pitch to boos at the end of both halves.
This game hinged on the events in the middle of the first half. Everton could have no complaint of the officials after Micky Van de Ven nodded in Bentancur’s back post header from a corner that was straight from the playbook of former Blues boss Sean Dyche.
But minutes later the hosts were celebrating a quick response after Jake O’Brien headed in from a near-post corner. Those celebrations were short-lived before changing into a pitch of fury when VAR intervened and the goal was ruled out for offside. O’Brien was fine, but Guglielmo Vicario was surrounded by Grealish and Ndiaye, both clearly offside when their teammate met the cross. It is hard to argue, as Pawson concluded, that their presence impacted Vicario. That he would not have saved the effort had those players not been there left a bitter taste, however.
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The sense of anger on the pitch and in the stands doubled on the break when Everton fell further behind to a second Van de Ven header from a corner. There was clear contact between his outstretched arm and the body of Jordan Pickford before he leapt to meet the cross. VAR checked that goal – as it checks every goal – but this time decided against stepping in. The Hill Dickinson Stadium seethed with a sense of injustice.
Everton had every reason to feel annoyed and the second-half booking for Grealish – his second for dissent this season – summed up the failure for anything to fall in favour of the hosts on a wet, stormy night on the Liverpool waterfront.
Yet there is only so much frustration they can direct at others in another game in which they prodded the seams of their own abilities. This is a team capable of playing free-flowing, intelligent football. At various points in this fixture the Blues looked set to harness their rage in positive fashion. It would have been a very different night under the lights, for instance, had Beto been able to fire Ndiaye’s cross in from close range inside the opening five minutes. For the third time in six weeks, the Guinea-Bissau international missed a golden opportunity in the opening stages of a game that Everton went on to drop points in. It may be unfair to have expected him to score all three. But that none ended up in the back of the net is a growing source of worry.
The 27-year-old persevered again, but in a system that does not suit him, his limitations were clear, as were those of a side which has no natural attacking support from full-back to help Grealish and Ndiaye.
Both still had moments, though, and Ndiaye was again a menace on the right. And for all that Beto is struggling, he was unfortunate not to get the goal that could kickstart his season when his acrobatic second-half effort was clawed away by Vicario. It was one of three excellent saves from the Spurs keeper, who was at full stretch to push a James Garner effort from distance around the post and then reacted brilliantly to prevent a deflected Ndiaye shot from beating him.
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The history books will present this as a comfortable win for Spurs, but in reality Everton were always in this game, and the feeling of belief and the determination to keep battling should offer a crumb of comfort to Moyes. The reasons for the failure to find a way back into this game extended beyond the controversial decisions of the matchday officials, however. One cause of worry is that Beto is still yet to find form and, in his search for it, is struggling to help his teammates. Thierno Barry looked brighter when he came on in the second half, though whether he can be the solution for this season is also unclear. Everton need to solve that problem quickly if they harbour ambitions of a top-half finish.
The game ended with a third for Spurs as Pape Matar Sarr nodded in from a Richarlison header across the box. It was a soft goal conceded by a team that was frantically searching for a way back. It piled on the misery as Everton suffered a first defeat at their new stadium, though.
This was not a game that warranted a 3-0 scoreline, and Everton will likely continue to frustrate as a team in transition flip-flops between progress and disappointment. Moyes will need to think hard about how to address some issues that are starting to dog this side, though, particularly now one potential solution – the return of Jarrad Branthwaite – has been ripped so cruelly from him. The honeymoon period is over at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
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