Tottenham were hosting Everton today to continue their fight for fourth spot after Manchester City heated things up yesterday with a win away to Chelsea. Spurs enjoyed a midweek 4-0 win in the FA Cup whilst Everton were dumped out of the Europa League, so both sides were looking to exploit any tired legs.
It took just eleven minutes until we saw the first goal in this game. Defoe miss-hit a shot out wide but succeeded in dragging the ball across goal and straight to the feet of in-form Pavlyuchenko who slotted it into an empty net.
With twenty-seven minutes gone, Luka Modric struck a beautiful shot over the ‘keeper from just inside the box, the ball flew over Howard, dipped, struck the underside of the crossbar and settled for Tottenham’s second, as Everton looked lost. The away side were very sluggish and lifeless in the first half, their midweek defeat against Sporting Lisbon had clearly taken a lot out of them.
Tottenham could have scored more in the first half but they went in at half time with a 2-0 lead.
Everton brightened up in the second half and on fifty-four minutes Arteta whipped in a corner to the far post, Rodwell headed across goal and Yakubu bundled the ball across the line. Rodwell then came close to equalizing as Everton stepped up their game.
With just fifteen minutes left to play, Everton were gifted a great opportunity to equalize but Donavan failed to convert at the far post, inches from goal with the ‘keeper nowhere in sight. Everton applied some pressure towards the end but they failed to find that second goal, with Tottenham taking the three points today.
