Moyes' Everton rip through Spurs to pile pressure on Postecoglou

David Moyes’ Everton ripped through Tottenham’s terrible defending in the first half at Goodison Park to set up a 3-2 victory which drags Ange Postecoglou’s side into the relegation battle.

The home fans celebrated with a hint of disbelief as the second-worst performing attack in the division feasted on Spurs’ shocking vulnerability at the back.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin hadn’t scored here in the Premier League since August. He twisted teenager Archie Gray this way and that before stroking in his first goal in 17 matches.

After an Orel Mangala shot was pushed onto the post, Iliman Ndiaye was soon breezing past Radu Dragusin to slam in a second. “Spurs have been all over the place,” said former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson on Sky Sports. “The defending from Dragusin is unacceptable.”

It got even worse in first-half stoppage-time, with Gray hooking the ball into his own net. The Everton fans had not seen anything like this since February 2017, when they netted three in the first 45 minutes against Bournemouth. Everton had only scored 15 goals in their 20 league games before Sunday.

Spurs switched away from their failed back-three experiment at half-time but it should have been 4-0 early in the second period when Calvert-Lewin spun and shot wide when again given time and space in the box. Inevitably, Everton then made life difficult for themselves in the final stages.

Dejan Kulusevski gave the travelling fans something to cheer when he chipped in nicely after Jordan Pickford had darted off his line. And Everton old boy Richarlison added another in stoppage-time from close range. But Everton saw it through to deliver a morale-boosting first league win under returning boss Moyes.

The Spurs supporters aired their displeasure throughout and repeatedly called for chairman Daniel Levy to leave the club. The work of Postecoglou will also come into sharp focus after this.

Yes, Spurs’ absentee list is long – with Dominic Solanke now out with a knee problem – but the overall picture has not looked good for a long time.

There is the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg lead to cling to at Anfield, but Spurs have been taken to extra-time at Tamworth, defeated in the north London derby, and now humbled at Everton since that standout win over Liverpool.

With one win in 10 Premier League games and the gap to the bottom three just eight points – and four to Everton – Tottenham are in crisis.

Postecoglou: The second half showed the players haven’t thrown towel in

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou:

“Obviously first half we really struggled within the game, gave ourselves a mountain to climb. The players tried to claw the game back in the second half but just fell short. We couldn’t really take control of the game. We struggled to gain any traction with the ball, without the ball. We had some chances also where we probably should have capitalised early on. But in the end it wasn’t enough.

“We’re pretty stretched, we only had 11 fit players today. You try to restructure a little bit. We weren’t in total control of our organisation, particularly early on, Everton capitalised on it a couple of times and we paid a price for it. We had a fair share of the game second half, we finished strong. I thought Richarlison made a difference when he came on and Mikey Moore on the left-hand side had a little more joy getting in behind.

“We look at the situation we’re in, it will eventually dissipate in terms of player availability, then we give ourselves an opportunity to at least get some consistency in games and performances. Keep fighting. I haven’t lost belief or determination to turn it around. The second half the players showed they’re not throwing the towel in. We’ll get our way through this.”

Moyes: We could have scored more

Everton boss David Moyes:

“With the position we’re in, any win is a good win. I thought the first half we played really well and did a lot of really good things. Maybe could have scored a couple more in the first half as well. We did very well, put ourselves in a good position. Dominic had a great chance to make it 4-0 as well.

“But it was a nervy ending. I knew if Tottenham got one we were going to be under pressure because of the way they play. But thankfully we just about saw it out.

“We’re thrilled we’ve got three points from the game. We’ve got a long way to go but today was a good start.”

Everton’s first-half blitz

Story of the match in stats…

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