The draw keeps Tottenham fourth, three points ahead of Manchester United, while Everton remain in 11th place. Tottenham are six points behind Arsenal. A point at Everton isn’t the worst result in the world and a point against Tottenham isn’t the worst result in the world. Thanks for reading. Bye.
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Full-time: Everton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
That’s your lot.
90 min+3: Lukaku isolates Vertonghen again. Yet the Tottenham centre-back blocks his shot this time. The ball flies to the left of the area. Barkley turns and shoots, but Lloris parries it away.
90 min+2: Lukaku finally finds himself one-on-one with Vertonghen as Everton counter. Yet Vertonghen does well to push him away from goal and Lukaku fires over.
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90 min: There will be three minutes of stoppage time. Tottenham are tired.
89 min: Tottenham knock a long ball down the left, Son chasing it with Stones, who gets there first. Stones should just clear it. Instead he decides to show off a few yards from his own goal, reasoning that this is the best place for him to turn this way and that. The Everton fans howl and fortunately for Stones, Son pulls him back and he gets a free-kick. Stones isn’t happy with the supporters. “Eff me,” he says, shaking his head, but there are times when you’re allowed to locate Row Z.
88 min: Tottenham make their final change, Josh Onomah replacing Erik Lamela.
87 min: Barkley finds space on the right and tries to look for Lukaku in the middle. Tottenham get it behind for a corner.
86 min: Lukaku almost breaks clear of the Tottenham defence, but Lloris reads the danger.
83 min: Nacer Chadli replaces Dele Alli.
79 min: Everton put Tottenham under some pressure in the air. Tottenham struggle to get it away with a couple of unconvincing defensive headers and the ball heads Besic’s way. He wallops a volley towards the top right corner, but Lloris superbly tips it over. From Cleverley’s resulting corner, Stones heads just wide.
78 min: Dier overhits a cross from the right. Howard again provokes the crowd’s ire by electing to punch it away.
76 min: Lamela lifts a free-kick into the Everton area. Howard does his best to gift Tottenham a goal, but he can’t quite manage it.
74 min: Alli tries his luck from 30 yards. It’s a decent enough effort, but it’s straight at Howard.
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73 min: The ball breaks to Deulofeu on the right of the Spurs area, but he can’t find a way past Davies with his shot. He does win a corner, though.
72 min: Carroll is booked for pulling Barkley back.
71 min: Tottenham are beginning to look like they’ve run out of steam. Not to worry, it’s not like they have to worry about the Europa League.
69 min: Tottenham make their first change. Son replaces Eriksen.
68 min: Lamela is booked for shoving a hand in Coleman’s face in an attempt to hold off the Everton defender. He had the ball, so that’s a fairly moronic piece of play from Lamela.
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67 min: Lloris has to race out of his area and slide in front of Deulofeu after the Tottenham defence were caught out by a ball down the right channel. Everton are building up some momentum.
66 min: Deulofeu dips past Eriksen and hangs a cross to the far post. It’s just too high for Lukaku. But the combination nearly clicks. Everton are improving.
64 min: Alli lobs a pass over the top, seeking out Kane. Stones covers well, but a moment of indecision between him and Howard almost lets Kane in. Howard mops up in the end.
63 min: It’s one-way traffic. Tottenham will be very annoyed if they contrive not to win this game. It would be the height of Spursiness if they lose it.
60 min: Everton make two changes. Mo Besic replaces Arouna Kone, while Gerard Deulofeu is on for Aaron Lennon. A few boos greet the decision to take Lennon off.
57 min: It’s pretty astonishing that this game is level.
54 min: Carroll prods a pass through to Eriksen, who has snuck into the space between the Everton midfield and their defence. Eriksen shoots firmly, but straight at Howard.
52 min: Tottenham come into it. And they almost score a stunning team goal. Davies hits a high ball from left to right, Alli the target again. Alli uses his chest to great effect again, showing wonderful ability, imagination and vision by pushing the ball through to Kane, who has made a good run. Kane is through but Stones forces him wide and his shot bounces past the right post.
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51 min: Everton have started the second half well, putting together their first extended spell of pressure. Tottenham haven’t been in it yet.
50 min: A man called Mike has alerted me to an old picture on Alli’s MySpace page.
Quick throwback to Dele Alli's Myspace photo. #COYS pic.twitter.com/mO9NoFM849
— COYS News (@CoysNews) December 19, 2015
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48 min: Barkley embarks on a power surge through the middle. However he’s tracked all the way by Carroll and he slashes a shot miles wide from 25 yards. “Wonderful player, absolute joy to watch,” says Evan Haas, speaking about Christian Benteke Dele Alli. “I’ll be gutted when Real Madrid spend two years publicly tapping him up then buy him for some princely sum we end up spending on the next Paulinho.”
46 min: Off we go again. This could be a big 45 minutes in Tottenham’s season. “Dele Alli has become without doubt the outstanding part of the midfield for Spurs this season,” says Jeremy Dresner. “Eriksen, Dembele and Lamela are all prone to having bad days this guy seems to be mr consistency - very unusual for someone so young. Can only compare him in style and effectiveness to a young Rooney. His rash discipline links him to the England captain too and needs ironing out but otherwise he is an absolute gem! Bravo Levy for snapping him up last Jan!”
Half-time: Everton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Dele Alli. Discuss.
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WHAT A GOAL!!!! Everton 1-1 Tottenham (Alli, 45 miin+1)
This is absurd from an astounding young footballer. Toby Alderweireld pings a searching pass over the top of the Everton defence from the halfway line, looking for Alli, who peels from left to right, away from Colman and into the area. There doesn’t appear to be a lot on, mind you, but Alli leaps, controls the ball on his chest, waits for it to drop and then hammers it past Howard with his right foot on the volley. The ball never touched the ground!
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42 min: Defending deep on the right, Coleman ends up colliding with the advertising hoardings behind the goal. Thankfully he doesn’t appear to be hurt.
40 min: Eriksen opens up the pitch with a cracking pass to Davies on the left. The resulting cross is threatening, but Alli mistimes his jump and heads well wide.
39 min: Lamela almost threads a wondrous pass through the eye of the needle to Alli. But not quite. Howard gathers.
36 min: It must be said that for all their territorial dominance, Tottenham are struggling to carve Everton open. They’re getting bogged down, with Everton happy to keep numbers back behind the ball.
35 min: Seamus Coleman is booked for handling a pass by Lamela. Barkley also could have been booked for pulling Lamela’s shirt.
33 min: Carroll tries his luck with a volley from 30 yards. It’s straight at Howard.
32 min: Tottenham have had 61% of the possession. They trail.
30 min: Eriksen catches Everton out by pulling the corner back to Davies, lurking 25 yards from goal. No one’s seen him. Davies gets the ball out of his feet and then rams a stunning shot towards the top right corner. Howard is beaten, but the ball pings away off the face of the bar. Tottenham are desperately unlucky not to be level.
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29 min: Tottenham have offered little since going behind. But they do have a corner on the right. Can they do anything with it?
26 min: Eriksen’s bending shot from 25 yards takes a deflection and drifts wide for a corner. Tottenham make a mess of it.
25 min: Lennon, determined to show Pochettino that he was wrong to sell him, whizzes past Davies and cuts the ball back to Kone. He looks poised to score, but his clipped effort is blocked.
24 min: Football really is a funny old game. Twenty minutes of utter dominance and now look. Lennon’s celebration wasn’t over the top, by the way, but he did look very pleased himself.
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Lennon, 22 min)
Everton get the ball for a bit. They score. Leighton Baines wins the ball halfway inside the Tottenham half, hassling Eriksen into giving it away, giving Tottenham some of their own medicine. He finds Cleverley, who in turn lofts a high ball towards Lukaku inside the Spurs area. Sam Allardyce would approve. He nods it down to Kevin Nolan Aaron Lennon and the former Spurs winger controls with his chest and then arcs a beauty of a volley past Lloris and into the far corner. Superb.
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21 min: Can Everton have the ball for a bit?
18 min: Eriksen is hovering near the ball, but it’s made for a left footer and Lamela assumes control. However his curling effort hits the wall and spins wide for a corner.
17 min: Tottenham almost work their way through on goal. Everton clear in a panic, but obviously they try to play their way out from the back, which is a bad idea. They end up conceding a free-kick just to the right of the D when Barry catches Eriksen.
15 min: Tottenham’s pressing is outstanding. Very gegen.
12 min: Everton aren’t being allowed out of their half. Someone fetch me some possession stats. Stat!
10 min: Alli is back on his feet and he’s back on the pitch.
9 min: Harry Kane jogs down the right and, with no one making a run outside him, he decides to have a shot. Baines blocks it. The ball is back with Kane soon enough, though, and he’s undeterred. He shoots again from 25 yards, Baines standing off him, and his rasping low shot fizzes past Howard and clangs away off the inside of the post. The ball flies off for a throw, meaning that Alli can get some treatment. He’s down after a collision with Cleverley.
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8 min: Alli almost slips a pass through to Lamela on the edge of the Tottenham area. Funes Mori recovers, but Everton look jittery in defence.
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6 min: Tottenham have started brightly. A deflected effort from Walker ricochets to Kane on the left. He finds Alli, who lays it back to Carroll, who ruins it all with a pass to absolutely no one.
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4 min: Eriksen slides a pass out to Walker on the right. He has far too much space and he boulders into the Everton area, before rapping a low ball into the six-yard box. It looks like it’s going to be a certain goal for Dele Alli, but he’s denied by a fine challenge from Coleman.
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3 min: Tottenham are passing the ball crisply in midfield. They look alert and confident.
And we’re off! Everton, in their blue shirts and white shorts, get the game underway, kicking from right to left in the first half. Ross Barkley immediately charges into the Tottenham half from kick-off, a sign of Everton’s attacking intent.
Here come the teams! It’s Everton v Tottenham. It’s Romelu Lukaku v Harry Kane. It’s on!
A curious Everton line-up, with Gerard Deulofeu benched and Arouna Kone in from the start. There’s some consternation about that amongst their supporters. For Tottenham, Moussa Dembele is out with a groin injury, so Tom Carroll starts again. They revert to four at the back after playing three centre-backs against Watford, while Son Heung-Min has to settle for a place on the bench after his late winner at Vicarage Road.
The teams!
The Roberto Martinez Fantasy: Howard; Coleman, Stones, Funes Mori, Baines; Barry, Cleverley; Lennon, Barkley, Kone; Lukaku. Subs: Robles, Jagielka, Mirallas, Besic, Deulofeu, Osman, Galloway.
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Carroll; Lamela, Alli, Eriksen; Kane. Subs: Rose, Bentaleb, Son, Vorm, Trippier, Chadli, Onomah.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
Preamble
So, Tottenham. Are they the real deal or is everything going to turn out very Spursy eventually? It looks like the former at the moment. This could be a case of speaking too soon, but the excellent Mauricio Pochettino is making it his business to stamp out their bad old tendencies and Tottenham no longer give the impression that calamity is lurking just around the corner, waiting to trip them up just as they dare to dream that something special is a genuine possibility. Spurs have the best defensive record in the league, they have lost twice in 19 games and they have a clear, effective way of playing. They are looking very good. The way they’ve been playing lately, forget about the top-four, this lot could challenge for the title, and how cheering it must have been for Spurs fans to see Pochettino talking about his long-term plans at White Hart Lane. He’s ace. They picked well when they replaced Tactics Tim.
Compare and contrast with Everton. A friend put it to me recently that they are the best 20-minute team in the Premier League and it’s not hard to see what he was getting at. They can be brilliant in patches, but they also have a habit of drifting through matches, and it is baffling to see a squad of this obvious quality in 11th place. Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu, Ross Barkley, John Stones, Seamus Coleman - Roberto Martinez should have them higher and a few doubts are surfacing about him. He is still struggling to get his defence right, which has always been a problem for his sides, and the sense is growing that Everton are underachieving. They should be producing a lot more. Then again, they can be superb on their day, so Tottenham will need to be at their most alert, especially with Lukaku in a fearsome run of goalscoring form. We’ll learn a lot about their burgeoning title credentials at Goodison Park. Is it all going to go a bit Spursy? There’s only one way to find out!
Kick-off: 4pm GMT.
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