Everton at Tottenham: Instant Reaction | Not bad, not good

Everton and Tottenham Hotspur didn’t have much to play for going into the last day of the 2018-19 Premier League season. Unfortunately it looks like the Blues took that too literally despite Marco Silva naming the strongest team he had at his disposal.

Spurs for their part might be in the Champions League Final but Mauricio Pocchetino also named the best XI players he had available to him, and they paid off his confidence early on.

Tottenham started strong, as the Blues looked like they were still adjusting to the new faces in the side. A corner was missed by Kurt Zouma and Yerry Mina and Eric Dier got in between the pair to slam home in the third minute. It didn’t really get better as Spurs continued to press and force turnovers, creating some half-chances.

It was not until about the quarter mark of the game that the Blues were able to string together some passes and finally create a couple of chances. Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun both looked rusty, seeing shots blocked or skied. The best things Everton created came from Gylfi Sigurdsson and he took his time coming into the game.

Michael Keane was guilty of wasting two good chances from freekicks, and then made two critical errors to let Spurs in but was lucky to not get punished. His central defender partner Mina was equally shaky to begin the game, but looked a little more comfortable when Spurs tired and let off the pressure.

The second half started off all Spurs again but once again Everton grew into the game and then in a flurry of activity late on, three goals got banged in in five minutes.

First the Blues equalized with Walcott slotting into the far post neatly after a wonderful pass from Sigurdsson found him streaking into the box. Then the visitors took the lead immediately after from a corner, with Tosun bundling home from a corner. Keane’s header was saved by Lloris, Lookman got the rebound which the goalie saved again, before Tosun got a leg in in the melee.

However substitute Andre Gomes gave away a poor freekick which Christian Eriksen scored from with a beautiful shot that Jordan Pickford had no chance with. That set up an exciting last ten minutes or so with both teams going for the win.

Despite both sides making some late runs, there were no clear chances late on and the game petered out to a 2-2 draw. Not the best result for the Blues after they had the lead, but probably the fairest result on the day.