Defensive weakness underpins Everton’s heavy first defeat at the Dock

In the end, the result was as miserable as the weather. Everton’s proud unbeaten sequence at Bramley-Moore Dock was washed away in the Merseyside rain on an afternoon that has felt like it was coming despite the first few encouraging results in the new stadium.

David Moyes’s side rode their luck against Brighton to emerge victorious in their first competitive game by the Mersey, should have beaten Aston Villa and West Ham and didn't, but the warning signs for a side that is desperately short in key positions were there when they escaped not going two or three down and had to come back from the dead to beat Crystal Palace in their previous home match. 

The Blues came into the final fixture of this weekend as the only team in the Premier League not to have conceded from a set-piece and having not shipped three or more goals since their humiliation at Old Trafford almost 11 months ago but saw both records crumble against Tottenham’s prowess from dead-ball situations.

Micky van de Ven plundered two goals from corners while Everton were incensed that Jake O’Brien’s own set-piece header was chalked off for offside and Mohammed Kudus’s high collision with Idrissa Gueye wasn’t deemed worthy of a penalty before Pape Matar Sarr put a harsh spin on the final score with a late third for the visitors.

Largely because of their vain search for a way back into the contest in the second half, the Toffees enjoyed the majority of the possession overall but found clear-cut opportunities hard to come by, that despite the return to the side of Jack Grealish and more stellar work down the right flank by Iliman Ndiaye.

Beto almost atoned for another alarmingly disjointed and ugly display when his overhead kick was batted away by Guglielmo Vicario while Grealish and Ndiaye went close for the hosts but the game from Everton’s perspective was weighed down by a general feeling of futility and inadequacy despite Spurs not looking like a team worthy of third place in the table by the end of the afternoon.

Discouragingly, apart from the injured Jarrad Branthwaite, Moyes put out what he clearly regards as his strongest starting XI. The performance that followed might force a re-think in some areas of the team because Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Idrissa Gueye had disappointing afternoons and Charly Alcaraz was overlooked until late on but Merlin Röhl came off the bench to add some purpose and drive to the midfield.

Worst of all, Moyes’s men looked weak where they are usually strongest — at the back, exhibiting poor marking from set-pieces while being bullied in their own six-yard box by Van de Ven who gleefully headed in from close range on two occasions before half-time.

And yet, there were two moments during those first 45 minutes that might have set this match on a different course. Everton came very close to marching into a third minute lead after more of Ndiaye’s brilliance took him to the byline where he clipped the ball across goal. His cross was a bit behind Beto (he failed to make contact on it anyway) but fell invitingly to Grealish at the back post, however his goal-bound effort was blocked on the line by Pedro Porro.

In the 24th, meanwhile, Jake O’Brien peeled off his marker to meet a Dewsbury-Hall corner and power a header off Vicario’s gloves and in to ignite the Hill Dickinson Stadium crowd with what appeared to be a vital equaliser after the keeper had turned James Garner’s shot behind at full stretch.

Unfortunately, Video Assistant Referee Stuart Attwell’s recommendation that the controversial Craig Pawson go to the monitor to review a potential offside against Ndiaye and Grealish led to the goal being ruled out — though the latter was not interfering with the play despite being well beyond the last defender, the Senegalese star was adjudged to have impeded the goalkeeper.

In between, Van de Ven had dampened the mood inside the ground when Rodrigo Bentancur easily out-jumped Vitalii Mykolenko at the far post to meet Kudus’s deep corner and Van de Ven met his header back across goal to nod home.

Bentancur himself then flashed a half-volley inches wide from the edge of the box while more great work by Ndiaye demanded that a blue shirt be in front of goal to meet his fizzed centre but Beto was three yards behind the play and not on the same wavelength.

That appeared to be the malaise throughout Everton’s attacking exploits all afternoon and they were given a mountain to climb when Van de Ven doubled Tottenham’s lead in first-half stoppage time. His visible bump on Pickford prior to heading in another corner, this time from a wicked Porro delivery, was left unchallenged by the VAR and the Blues went into the half-time interval 2-0 down.

Their initial attempts to claw their way back into it almost yielded a goal. Ndiaye’s enterprising flick off Grealish’s cross from the left missed the target by a matter of inches while Beto’s uncharacteristic acrobatics from Ndiaye’s own cross from the opposite flank forced another good save from Vicario.

But it could — and probably should — have been 3-0 and game over when Richarlison came off the bench and forced James Tarkowski into a dreadful error but elected not to lob Pickford and slammed his shot into the keeper’s body instead when clean through on goal.

Moyes hooked Beto for Thierno Barry and withdrew O’Brien so that Garner could move to right-back and Röhl could make another impressive cameo but Everton would be stymied by the bodies that Spurs threw in front of them as they chased the game.

Ndiaye’s shot took a deflection off Kevin Danso’s heel and was saved, Gueye’s low drive was charged down following a corner and a speculative Barry strike looped over after striking a defender’s leg. Perhaps the best opening fell to Röhl from Dewsbury-Hall’s cross but the German headed well over before Sarr wrapped things up for Thomas Frank’s men in the 89th minute.

Porro picked Richarlison out with a deep ball from Spurs’s right, the Brazilian cushioned a perfect header into the path of Sarr and he guided a header of his own beyond the stranded Pickford to make it 3–0.

A result that extends Everton’s recent run to four defeats in six will serve as a jarring reality check on all that early-season optimism and the team’s ascent to fifth place by the end of August.

Moyes’s side have scored just three times in their last seven in all competitions and have slipped to 14th and are now looking over their shoulders again as they prepare for what now looks to be a daunting trip to the Stadium of Light next Monday.