going back up.
Well, it’s just up and down from Spurs, as they followed up the latest down of the embarrassing Cup defeat by stuffing hapless Everton five nil.
In the last few games Spurs have been at the top or at the bottom of a rolleycoaster* ride. Beat City, lose to Burnley, stuff Leeds, lose to Middlesbrough, stuff Everton. In the league it is three wins out of four, 12 scored, 3 conceded, which you is not too bad.
Three of those games have come against teams in and around the relegation zone, with two games against teams that seem in free-fall, Leeds and Everton. The latter didn’t show any fight to get them out of trouble as they joined Leeds in opening up and making it easy for a Spurs who just love big swathes of open space to counter into.
While Everton didn’t manage a single shot on target, Spurs were profligate and should have come away with an even greater margin of victory. What Everton did have was mainly handed to them by Spurs. If it wasn’t for Spurs fannying about at the back and trying to get themselves into a mess, then the visitors wouldn’t have had less than nothing from the game.
The game pretty much ended before a quarter of an hour had ticked over on the clock. Bentancur played the ball out to Davies who knocked it down the wing, where Sessegnon ran through the channel to get on it as it reached the byline, a first time cross and it was Kane versus Keane in the box. The Everton defender won the only thing Everton won all night, to score the own goal.
It only took three minutes for the lead to be doubled. Kane, Kulusevski, Son, it’s becoming a real trio. That’s how it went, with Son not dithering and putting his chance away. At the time it put Son on 11 goals and 5 assist, meaning only Salah had more goal involvements than the Korean, in a season when I’d say he’s been far from his best as was highlighted in this game with two chances he should have either taken or passed on but dithered with. He’s dithered a bit in scoring situations this season, it’s so unlike him, normally so sharp and direct.
It took another 20 minutes for Kane to get his custom goal against Everton. Kulusevski knocked the ball back and Doherty played a lovely ball through the middle of Everton’s high line, for Kane to take one touch and then bang it past Pickford. It was tight but VAR proved Kane was just onside.
I said about half time that with Spurs only having league games left this season, I couldn’t see Royal or Reguilon getting a start soon. Conte has been picking Sessegnon and Doherty regularly and seems to trust them now. They’ve been repaying his trust. But Sess didn’t make it out after the break, due to injury, replaced by Reguilon. Within seconds of the second half starting and his second touch Reguilon got the fourth. The Spaniard won the ball, a one-two between Son and Kane, he dithered a bit before playing it wide to Kulu. The Swede’s first time cross with his right missed everyone but Reguilon coming in at the back.
The scoring was over before the hour was up. By then Conte had seen a red coming for Romero and so replaced him with Sanchez, but even with the Colombian in the Spurs defence the visitors didn’t really have a sniff. The fifth saw a lovely chipped ball by Doherty, from more a midfield position, than wingback, he put a beautiful ball over the Everton backline, straight onto Kane’s left foot for him to put it away.
Funny how Doherty looks so much better not playing on the left or in a back four, but in the position that he played at Wolves, the position that made Spurs buy him and made him look like a bargain in the first place.
Everton were spineless, van de Beek didn’t last the hour, Dele didn’t make a difference, toothless up front and wide open at the back. They don’t look like they have the fight to beat relegation. You wouldn’t back them against Burnley for which would fight their way out of the drop. But Frank has his media mates to cover his back.
Now Man U up next, nearly a week for Conte to train ’em, can they be as open as Leeds and Everton…
*Rolleycoaster. The title comes from the conversation between Artie and Larry Sanders, where Artie calls it a “rolleycoaster” and Larry replies… “You know, talking to you is like… talking to you”. About 11 mins on the other video.