5 Telling Stats from Everton’s Gritty 1-1 Draw with Tottenham

What did the numbers tell us about Everton’s performance?

It was a horrible, stop-start game that was tarnished even further by a horrific injury to Andre Gomes (get well soon, Andre). But what did the numbers tell us about the performance?

Let’s find out…

Davies Outstanding

Boisterous performance saw him make 4 tackles and complete 78.3% of passes

One of Everton’s brightest performers was undoubtedly Tom Davies, who sometimes tidy and sometimes incisive passing was central to Everton’s best play. Indeed, his defence-splitting second half ball to Theo Walcott was world-class, and with Andre Gomes devastatingly out for the foreseeable future, Davies needs to continue at this level and demonstrate he can be Everton’s creative anchor in midfield.

For context, take a look at Tom Davies pass map compared to that of Morgan Schneiderlin’s last start against Burnley.

Mistakes

Blues have most “unsuccessful touches” in the Premier League

Alex Iwobi’s uncharacteristic mistake saw the Blues concede the opening goal, but are mistakes and bad touches as a whole responsible for Everton’s poor start to the season?

The Blues average 17.6 “unsuccessful touches” per game, according to WhoScored, which is the highest in the league. For context, Manchester City make the fewest per game, with an average of 11.7, although Liverpool surprisingly have the third most unsuccessful touches per game too.

Richarlison

Was officially fouled just once

When Richarlison came to Everton, he had the questionable accolade of having been the most fouled played in the Premier League with Watford in the season prior.

It’s clear the Brazilian has a very strong sense of gravity, but should be protected more by referees and his teammates, or should he simply learn to stay on his feet more?

To me, he’s coming across as the boy who cried wolf. As he’s going down holding his face every time someone comes near him, referees don’t believe him when he actually is fouled. That very much seemed to be the case against Spurs, with Richarlison going down multiple times, while earning just one foul – significantly below his average of 2.1 fouls per game.

Tosun Takes His Chance

Striker has a goal and assist in just 83 minutes of action this season

I was perplexed to see Everton name three strikers on the bench coming into this game, with Tosun an especially surprising inclusion. With Kean and Calvert-Lewin seemingly above the Turkish striker in the pecking order, I couldn’t envisage a situation in which I thought he would be brought on.

I was wrong.

Silva’s first change was to bring on Tosun as Everton looked to go a bit more direct and it was good to see the hard-working striker take his chance with a 96^th minute equaliser. It was just his second league appearance of the season and he clearly is working his way back into Silva’s plans.

And let’s not forget, he is Everton’s only experienced centre forward, he is Turkey’s star player and he cost the Blues a cool £26 million less than two years ago. Maybe he’s not so bad.

Lack of Early Goal Detrimental Again

Everton’s last 7 league wins have come after scoring in the opening 20 minutes

Undoubtedly the brightest spell for Everton came in the opening 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the lack of a goal during this period made it very unlikely that the Blues were going to grab a vital win.

How important is an early goal for Everton? Extremely.

Each of Everton’s last seven league wins have seen the Blues score in the opening 20 minutes.