Perhaps it was always going to be a match made in heaven. Everton had not scored a Premier League goal since Boxing Day and their final-third creativity had been short for the entire season.
Enter Tottenham Hotspur, the top-flight team who give every opponent a chance and, despite their own threats, can be one of the easiest to play against.
David Moyes probably couldn’t have asked for a better team to face in his second game back in charge. In one half of this game, his side increased their league goal tally by a fifth and their confidence by an even greater margin.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring only his third goal of the campaign, and the first since September, was as welcomed a sight as any for the Goodison Park crowd, who also enthused over Iliman Ndiaye’s display which featured a ferocious goal of his own.
Moyes’ decision to balance Ndiaye on one flank with Jesper Lindstrom on the other paid off as Everton were as enterprising as they have been in any of their previous matches this term.
Tottenham have now won just one of their last 11 league games and only seven of their past 17 in all competitions as the pressure mounts on Ange Postecoglou. Their first-half defensive display was woeful even by their standards.
The deployment of a back three made Spurs no sturdier, and although Postecoglou was without ten first-team players — including striker Dominic Solanke — there was no excuse for how open they often found themselves.
Dejan Kulusevski’s chipped finish into an empty net was one moment of class and Richarlison scoring in stoppage time having come on as a substitute against his former club represented a comeback of sorts, but Everton had unusually done enough at the other end.
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Story of the game
Given the strengths and weaknesses of these two teams, it seemed almost inevitable that the side with the penchant for scoring would be the one to make the opening moves. But instead it was Everton with the up and at ‘em approach.
Lindstrom chopped onto his right foot to bring a comfortable save from Antonin Kinsky as the home side tried to give the crowd an early boost. But a goal was what Everton truly wanted. Particularly so for Calvert-Lewin.
In the 13th minute Lindstrom won possession, Orel Mangala passed to Idrissa Gueye and the Everton striker was played in to the Tottenham penalty area. For a forward without a goal in 16 games, Calvert-Lewin showed incredible poise with three white shirts around him to cut one way then another before rolling a shot past the wrong-footed Kinsky.
It was a great start for the home team who did not have to deal with much of a Tottenham response.
Heung-min Son, playing as the false No.9 and bearing down on goal, had the ball stolen from him by a perfectly-timed tackle from James Tarkowski. The Spurs captain also sent a shot along the turf too close to Jordan Pickford after Kulusevski had broke the line and pulled the ball back.
Everton continued to make the better in-roads, though. Mangala took aim at the bottom corner but Kinsky tipped onto the post. The visitors’ ‘keeper couldn’t do anything about Ndiaye’s goal.
Gray was spun on halfway and Ndiaye was away, running full pelt at the backtracking Radu Dragusin. The Everton wideman was too strong, barging the Tottenham defender out of his way, before firing a powerful shot into the roof of the net.
Scoring two first-half goals from open play was a first for Everton this term. A third came in the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time.
Tarkowski, who had earlier been denied by Kinsky from a Lindstrom free kick, headed another of the Dane’s deliveries back across goal. Calvert-Lewin glanced the ball on towards Gray, who was unable to move out of the way and could only steer it into his own net.
Postecoglou was unmoved, the embarrassment surely setting in, and sent his players out two minutes early for the second half. Yet, they remained largely at sixes and sevens.
Everton was again gifted the ball close to the Tottenham goal from a goalkick after Vitaliy Mykolenko had fired over. Calvert-Lewin should have punished the mistake, or at least found the target with his effort.
Kulusevski got one back for the visitors in the 77th minute with a remarkable finish. Pickford had rushed from his goal to deal with James Maddison and Kulusevski’s chip from 20 yards was well-placed to fly over three tall Everton defenders and into an unguarded net.
Richarlison met substitute Mikey Moore’s cross at the back post to force in a second for Tottenham in stoppage time but the damage had been done. For a change, it was Everton’s goal-getting rather than their defending that proved the difference.
