Goodison re-finds her voice as Moyes inspires vital win over Spurs

For 70-odd minutes, this felt like Everton again. Mind you, so did the final 15 — the wrong kind of Everton — as Tottenham worked their way back into a match they had long since surrendered to leave Goodison Park biting its collective nails while memories of that harrowing collapse against Bournemouth in August came rushing back. An attacking fervour and confidence, dormant for so much of this miserable season under Sean Dyche, was re-awakened by David Moyes in only his second game back, resulting in a massive win in front of a home crowd that re-found its raucous voice on an uplifting afternoon in L4.

Also re-energised was Dominic Calvert-Lewin in front of goal. He will rue the other chances that fell his way and evaporated in the Merseyside air but will take huge confidence from not only ending a 16-game goal drought but also the manner in which he did it. Displaying wonderful footwork inside the box, his finish for the opener was deadly and it set Everton on their way to only their fourth Premier League victory of the season and their first at home over Tottenham since Moyes was last in charge 13 years ago.

While Iliman Ndiaye came alive again on the opposite flank and scored a wonderful solo goal, this might also have been the breakthrough performance for Jesper Lindstrøm. Widely derided as a flop since arriving from Napoli on loan, the Dane was tenacious defensively, electric at times down the right flank and he, too, will draw enormous heart from his what was far and away his best display in a Blue shirt so far.

Lindstrøm led the way in this one with an early shot on target that forced the first save of the afternoon from Antonín Kinský, a flying one-handed stop as Everton came out of the traps with the kind of purpose and intensity that the home crowd would have wanted. This was reminiscent of some of those classic performances at the Old Lady against more fancied opposition during Moyes’s spell and with just 12 minutes gone, it yielded the opening goal.

The hosts had swamped Ange Postecoglou’s makeshift rearguard in the early going and that intensity saw Lindstrøm intercept Pape Saar’s ball across midfield and find Idrissa Gueye who fizzed it into Calvert-Lewin’s feet inside the box. The striker did brilliantly to tie Alfie Gray into knots before slotting wide of Kinský as Goodison erupted at the first goal of Moyes’s tenure and Everton’s first in the league since Boxing Day.

Calvert-Lewin might have swiftly added another when Jarrad Branthwaite sent him away with a perfect ball over the top but a poor touch off his thigh took it too close to the keeper who was able to snuff the chance out.

As poor a run as Spurs and their under-fire manager have been on in recent weeks, they remain one of the division’s most potent teams going forward and the threat they posed, particularly through Son Hueng-min, was evident as the South Korean was put into the clear in the 18th minute but James Tarkowski, excellent on the day, executed a superb covering tackle.

Jake O’Brien, making his first league start, mostly as a very Moyesian right-back who offered the option of a third centre-half when needed, was similarly alert four minutes later to snuff out a fluid Spurs attack before Pedro Porro played Dejan Kulusevski in who centred for Son but from the kind of position he is normally deadly, the forward swept his shot too close to Jordan Pickford who saved low to his right.

Pickford would save again from Son and referee Darren England waved away claims for a penalty after the Spurs man went down under the attentions of Jarrad Branthwaite in the box but, at the other end, Everton came within inches of doubling their lead before they eventually did on the half hour.

First, Calvert-Lewin chased a ball over the top of Tottenham’s high line but his control let him down and Kinský ultimately claimed it; then Orel Mangala’s low drive was turned onto the post by the keeper while Calvert-Lewin could only plant the resulting cross into the Czech’s arms.

Evertonians were in dream land shortly afterwards, though, when Ndiaye, the last player to score for the Toffees in the Premier League with his equaliser at the Etihad Stadium, collected a return ball from Gueye, romped through the opposition half, feinted with a step-over past Radu Dragusin and buried his shot high into the net.

Belief was visibly flooding back into an Everton side that has had its confidence on the floor in recent weeks amid a run of just one win in 12 and goals scored in just two of those Premier League fixtures. And when Lindstrøm was tripped wide on the right and he whipped in a dangerous free-kick, it took another save from Kinský to keep out Tarkowski’s diving header while a claim for a spot-kick for a foul on Branthwaite was ignored.

The Blues would not be held back in first-half stoppage time though. After a corner was cleared by the visitors, Lindstrøm swung a deep ball to the back post, Tarkowski headed it back across goal towards O’Brien at the back stick via a Clavert-Lewin flick and Gray unwittingly turned it into his own net to make it an almost inconceivable 3-0 at the break to a team that had seemingly forgotten how to score.

No doubt aware of the fallibility of the side he had inherited from Dyche, Moyes admitted afterwards that the aim had been to score a fourth in the second half and Everton came very close to doing that before they lose control of the contest in the final quarter of an hour. Calvert-Lewin steered another Lindstrøm free-kick off target, Vitalii Mykolenko blazed an awful shot high into the Gwladys Street and when Kinský gifted the ball to the Danish winger, DCL’s swivel shot flashed a yard wide of the far post.

For Spurs, while Son had been off his game as the lone striker, James Maddison and Kulusevski had looked the most likely to cause the Blues problems on the day. The former had swept a cut-back from near the byline over in the 72nd minute and the latter’s cross narrowly eluded substitute Richarlison and it was the earlier two who combined to bring the visitors back into the game.

Pickford came off his line to close Maddison down as he collected the ball near the byline, couldn’t get anything on his attempt to cut out the England’s man cross and when the rebound fell to Kulusevski, he deftly lofted it over the keeper and four blue shirts to make it 3-1 and set the first nerves jangling among the Goodison faithful.

That began to edge towards panic in stoppage time as Moyes successively threw on Young, Nathan Patterson and Michael Keane in a bid to shore things up at the back but found his back line under increasing pressure and Mikey Moore’s shot was deflected into the side-netting before the lead cut to just one. In another echo of the Bournemouth home game,  cross eluded everyone except Richarlison who converted at the back post.

Thankfully, Everton were able to hold out through the four or so minutes tacked on for stoppages to claim three precious points that, amazingly, bring them to within four points of today’s opponents and move them just as many away from the relegation zone.

More important, of course, was the performance and the re-emergence of the signs that there is quality in this group that Dyche ultimately couldn’t cajole out of them. That Moyes has been able to a little over a week back in the job bodes well for the second half of the campaign. He will be aware that injury-stricken Spurs made it easier for his side than it might have been and what should have been a thumping 3-0 win turned into a heart-punishing finalé but that should take nothing away from the calibre of the first two goals, some fine individual performances and the impact his tweaks to the approach have made.

The final score, one that hugely flattered Spurs and rather undersold how dominant Everton were for the bulk of the contest, is all that matters and you can feel the pressure ease a notch on fans and players alike.

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