Match Report: Spirited Spurs Overcome European Hangover to Down Toffees

A lot has been made of the hangover that Tottenham seemingly suffer in matches that follow their European adventures, but are they actually not managing their squad properly or have they just had the misfortune to play against teams on a run of form and would have dropped those points anyway?

With all the permutations of possibility, Tottenham were going into Sunday's match on equal footing, as their guests would be suffering the same effects of Thursday night football.

Early on in the game it looked like Tottenham were going to stick to the script and keep failing after European outings. Everton were playing on another level and Tottenham seemed to be playing catchup for the opening 20 minutes. Kevin Mirallas and Ross Barkley were dominating Tottenham's midfield and their efforts paid off with a stunning opening goal from the Belgian which drew nearly as much applause from the press box as it did from the very vocal away support.

Goal -15' Mirallas K. - Tottenam 0 -1 Everton - Premier League - 30.11.2014 by Football Live

Just as Everton had fully hit their stride, an error in judgement from Tim Howard saw the visitors punished as Christian Eriksen netted his 5th goal of the season. Only Nacer Chadli has scored more for Tottenham this season. After Everton had earlier looked likely to press on and head back to Merseyside with an easy 3 points the unthinkable happened - Roberto Soldado scored. It was an actual goal from open-play no less. On a weekend which saw goals from Joe Cole and Glen Johnson, it was fitting that the Spaniard joined the unlikely scorers party with a goal of his own - ending a drought of 634 minutes of action without a Premier League goal.

Shaking off any enduring shadows of their Eurotrip, the hosts took charge of the game and began to play some entertaining football - not unlike Pochettino’s Southampton side. As Tottenham grew in confidence, Everton seemed to lose their own with Lukaku and Eto’o disappearing almost completely from the game.

Roberto Martínez noted in his post-match press conference that a draw would have been a fair result - but the implicit complacency from some of his team after the first goal would suggest otherwise. Barkley and Mirallas looked the most likely to make a breakthrough for the visitors - but they didn’t have the support they needed from their teammates, with a particularly poor performance from Gareth Barry, who received the lowest WhoScored rating of the game at 5.72.

The result was a familiar, and worrying, story for both sides. Tottenham have conceded the opening goal in 7 of their 13 matches this season - and in each of the last 4. They have, however, shown signs of a fighting spirit which Pochettino has been trying to instil in his men, and it's starting starting to pay off as they've come from behind to win 3 of the last 4 games. It provides drama and fun, but they will eventually be punished for conceding early.

Everton on the other hand have now dropped 11 points this season from games in which they have held a winning position. They seemingly have a tendency for starting brightly, just as they had against Tottenham, and then just losing shape and being careless in possession deep in their own half. It is something Martínez will need to address sooner rather than later to ensure Everton can keep their place in Europe next season.

Do you agree that Spurs deserved to win the game? Let us know in the comments below