Everton 3-2 Tottenham: Spurs slump to ANOTHER defeat as pressure builds on Ange Postecoglou after rejuvenated Toffees’ first-half blitz

Of all the various ways Tottenham have found to lose during their terrible midwinter demise this one might end up going down as the worst.

Worse than the tame surrender at Arsenal on Wednesday. Worse even than humbling defeats on home soil to Chelsea, Newcastle or struggling Ipswich. Worse than the six-goal hammering at home to Liverpool.

Here, they were three down by half time against an Everton team who had forgotten how to score, who came into the fixture having failed to find the net in nine of their previous 11 matches in the Premier League.

They had not beaten Spurs at Goodison Park since David Moyes was in charge the first time around and here, with Moyes back on the touchline for the second game of his second coming, they ripped their visitors to shreds.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin led the goal rush, Iliman Ndiaye scored a wonderful solo goal albeit with minimal resistance and Archie Gray scored in his own net just before half time. There could easily have been more before Everton went prematurely down through the gears.

Ange Postecoglou‘s tactical plan to cover the holes left in his depleted team by 10 absentees with a change of formation went badly wrong.

Dejan Kulusevski pulled one back late on with a delectable, clipped finish over a crowd of players, to spark a late flurry and Richarlison bundled in another from close range in stoppage time to jangle nerves around the stadium.

There were echoes of a defeat at Galatasaray in the Europa League, when Spurs were awful and three down at half time before fighting back and making it look respectable.

But Everton had moved down through the gears once an hour had been played, and the away end were rolling out the protest songs about chairman Daniel Levy, who looked on impassively from the VIP seats.

For all the goodwill about his style of play and understanding at boardroom level that injuries have made circumstances very difficult, pressure is building on Postecoglou ahead of a trip to Hoffenheim in the Europa League on Thursday.

Tottenham, with all their Champions League pretensions, are 15th in the Premier League and Everton, one place behind, are up and running under Moyes. Every other team around them except Ipswich have changed managers and the Australian knows he cannot carry on losing.

Fresh injuries rocked Spurs just as Postecoglou dared to believe the crisis might be easing. Brennan Johnson and Yves Bissouma picked up knocks against Arsenal which ruled them out, but the biggest blow was losing Dominic Solanke, who tweaked a knee attempting a shot in training on the eve of the game.

The Spurs bench told the story of Postecoglou’s nightmare. There could be found the fourth-choice goalkeeper, six teenagers with one Premier League start between them, a left-back they’ve been trying to sell for two years and Richarlison, just back from injury and still probably held with more affection by Everton’s supporters than Tottenham’s.

It forced Postocoglou into a reshuffle. With Ben Davies back, he changed the Spurs shape to a back three with wing backs and Heung-min Son up front through the centre with James Maddison and Kulusevski in support.

The plan, however, backfired. Tottenham could find no fluency and Everton seized control to the delight of the home crowd. Antonin Kinsky made a flying save from Jesper Lindstrom, the first of many, but was helpless and Calvert-Lewin found the net.

Idrissa Gueye threaded a pass into his feet and the centre forward twisted Archie Gray one way and then the other before hammering a shot low past Kinsky. It was his first goal for four months and a goal to bring confidence surging through Goodison Park against frail opponents.

Kinsky made another flying fine save to turn a shot by Orel Mangala onto a post and was back on his feet to keep out a header by Calvert-Lewin as the ball was quickly delivered back into the penalty area.

The Spurs keeper then dashed from his line to foil Calvert-Lewin again, this time bursting clear on goal but let down by his second touch, off a knee. Kinsky came out of smother but Everton’s second came on the half hour.

Gueye slid a quick pass to Ndiaye midfield and he accelerated away, meeting no resistance until he was on the edge of the penalty area, where he threw an extravagant stepover to beat Radu Dragusin and crashed a shot high into the net.

The third was an own goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half added after Dragusin required lengthy treatment for a head injury after being caught by a stray arm from Calvert-Lewin.

James Tarkowski, who had just been foiled by another Kinksy save, headed a cross square from deep, Calvert-Lewin glanced it on and Gray, facing his own goal as he tried to recover, kneed it into his own net in the chaos.

It summed up a miserable first half for the visitors. They flickered briefly at one down and Jordan Pickford made two saves from Son, but in truth they were flattered by the deficit. Dragusin did not return for the second half and Spurs reverted to the more familiar 433 formation with Richarlison on to lead the line.

They improved. Richarlison added aggression and Mikey Moore came on to offer threat on the left wing. They all seemed more comfortable in the familiar system but a flurry of 20 minutes at the end was too little and much too late.

This goes down as a big psychological win for the home team and their new dawn. 

It will go down as a big defeat for the visitors.