Tottenham: More riches on the road  | OneFootball

Spurs carried on their excellent away form in the Premier League on Sunday, becoming the first team to beat Everton in their shiny new home. 

The toffees had managed two wins and two draws so far in the league at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. This unbeaten run was ended abruptly by a Tottenham team still lacking firepower, but luckily has the aerial power of stand-in skipper Micky van de Ven. 

Turning defence into attack

The big Dutchman has been a key player in the starting lineup for a while now, this has been rewarded with him being given the captains armband in Cristian Romero’s absence. 

At 6ft 4in, van de Ven is a man monster at the back and incredibly quick considering his size. His defensive capabilities are there for all to see, but with the emphasis on set-pieces becoming more of a focus in Thomas Frank’s tactics, he’s becoming a real threat in front of goal too.

Spurs are still struggling to get goals from their forward line, so it’s a relief for Frank that he’s getting goals from other areas of the field. The captain pounced with two clever headers from corners in the first half, to put his team 2-0 up at half-time. Mohammed Kudus was again impressive with his pin point deliveries, as was Pedro Porro. 

Spurs stats

Apart from being the first team to win at Everton’s new stadium, there were various other interesting stats from this match. Van de Ven’s brace meant that he became the first defender to score twice in a Premier League game for Tottenham since Jan Vertonghen in March 2013. Ironically this was also on Merseyside, but against the red side (Liverpool). 

This 13 point haul from their first five away games of a season is only the second time in the Premier League era that Spurs have achieved such a feat (the last time being in the 2020-21 season).

Riding their luck

Many could argue that a 3-0 scoreline flattered the men from N17. Everton controversially had an equaliser disallowed for offside shortly after Tottenham scored their first goal. 

Then in the second half Guglielmo Vicario carried on his amazing Spiderman shot-stopping from the Monaco game and Kevin Danso also put in a solid performance at the back. This was very much a team performance and not just the van de Ven show. 

The icing on the cake came in the 89th minute when substitute Pape Sarr headed home, after a clever assist from former Evertonian Richarlison. Everton hadn’t conceded a set-piece goal before this match and were the last Premier League side to do so this season (excluding penalties). To concede two was a bitter pill to swallow for David Moyes.

Hard to please

Despite sitting pretty in third and unbeaten in the Champions League, there still seems to be some unrest from Spurs fans on social media channels. Quite bizarre considering the injuries and the fact that the new coaching team having only being at the club for three months. This aside some people are even suggesting Tottenham are going backwards, crazy right!? 

There are strange comparisons between Postecoglou and Frank being made, but from my point of view the results and attitude of the current team speaks for itself. 

As I mentioned in my last article there’s a worry that this Tottenham team are lacking an identity, but with Frank continuing to embrace a renaissance in the set-piece culture, maybe this will be a strong part of this team’s success in the near future. 

More fortune up north?

This really is a busy time of year for football fixtures and Frank’s team travel further north for a tricky League Cup tie against Newcastle United on Wednesday.

It would really be some achievement to knock out the holders on their own backyard, especially with the Magpies carrying some injured players within the squad. Eddie Howe has confirmed that full-backs Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento remain absent through injury. 

There is also doubt over the availability of centre-back Sven Botman, who suffered a nasty cut to his head in the dramatic 2-1 win over Fulham last weekend. Spurs also have injury concerns, with Romero, Destiny Udogie and Dominic Solanke still sidelined. 

With both managers likely to rest players and mix things up, it’s certain to be an intriguing contest under the lights of St James’s Park.