Key events
Everton remain unbeaten and pick up another point away from home.
Spurs? Well. Jamie Redknapp has his say on Sky Sports:
“After spending £300m, I didn’t think there would be a problem scoring goals. But to not score in six hours of football is absolutely diabolical.”
De Zerbi strides onto the pitch and still seems to be in coaching mode, giving his players instructions after the final whistle. It was a toothless performance from his side, they had a sprightly first 15 minutes without creating a clear cut chance and Everton gradually settled into the game and had the better of it.
FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton
Booooos ring out around Tottenham’s stadium as their goal drought continues. It’s the first nil nil at the place.
92 mins: Dewsbury-Hall has an effort deflected for a corner for Everton. The resulting delivery isn’t good enough though and the danger passes.
90 mins: Three minutes injury time it is. Is there going to be a last gasp winner?
88 mins: Save by Jordan Pickford! That’s as close as Tottenham have come! Bergvall shoots from 22 yards out, Pickford is slightly out of position but backpedals quickly and dives low to his right to turn it around the post. Was it going in? Maybe not actually.
87 mins: Roberto De Zerbi is booked for remonstrating too passionately. I know Bobby, I know. He prowls his box in his black t shirt, his side haven’t done enough today. Yet.
86 mins: Gray is replaced by Tosin. There’s a roiling frustration surging around the stadium.
85 mins: Garner gets a yellow for obstructing Salvio. Five minutes and a bit more to go. We’re on for the first 0-0 at the Tottenham Stadium*.
*Surely just writing that gets us a goal?
83 mins: It’s been 400 minutes and counting since Spurs’ last Premier League goal. I’m just the messenger.
81 mins: Savio tries to bend one in the far corner but it is deflected wide. Is something building here…
80 mins: Tottenham surge and Tonali drives a shot from outside the box, Branthwaite gets his body in the way again.
79 mins: Maddison replaces Marmoush and the Spurs fans roar. Big ten minutes incoming.
77 mins: Everton have got all the posession, if there is to be a goal you’d fancy it would come from the visitors.
74 mins: Chance! Johnson gets the ball unmarked 15 yards out, has time to take a touch but lashes it first time and it’s no good. Gah.
Seconds later he is subbed off for Hackney. O’Brien also comes on for Everton – Maitland-Niles the man to come off.
71 mins: Everton fans shout for a pen for handball as Tonali’s clearance cannons off a team-mate but there’s nowt doing.
70 mins: Grealish hacks clear to end a Spurs attack but they come again. Bergvall whips a cross towards Savio at the back post… his cut back… fails to find a team-mate.
69 mins: Yellow card for Dewsbury-Hall for a needelssly wild challenge on Tonali.
68 mins: Spurs are on the back foot again and the fans are growing more and more restless.
66 mins: The air was all sucked out of the THS for a split second there with Kinsky’s boo boo.
65 mins: Oh my days! Kinsky you lucky sausage! The Spurs keeper is too laissez faire with a pass out and it goes straight to Dewsbury-Hall on the edge of the box… he shoots but without much power and Kinsky spares his own blushes with a save. Cripes.
64 mins: David Moyes unleashes Grealish for George…
63 mins: Substitution time! For Spurs it is Fernandes, Bentancur and Solanke who make way for Tel, Kudus and Bergvall.
61 mins: Good spot this from Chris Finnegan:
“Hello Jimbo, not sure if you were referring to Withnail or a Guinness advert when you wrote ‘tick follows tock’ earlier, but if it’s the former then this sprang to mind from Uncle Monty de Zerbi…
“It is the most shattering experience of a young manager’s life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself: ‘I will never play the Dane.’ Erickson left six years ago and none of the others want to come here.”
60 mins: Subs incoming? De Zerbi is about to bring on Tel and Bergvall in and Moyes has summoned Jack Grealish.
59 mins: ‘Come on you Spurs’ rings around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as the home fans will their team on, they manage an attack into the Everton box but both Robertson and Tonali have their crosses cleared without any real danger building.
57 mins: Everton have all the play now and Spurs are clinging on a little it feels. The home fans burst into song to try and get their team going but you can feel the nerves through the telly.
55 mins: Everton surge forward and get a corner. Close! George fires towards goal through a crowded box, Bentancur is in the right place to block, that was going in.
54 mins: The second half is thus far sprightlier from both sides.
George Ronczy raises his head over the parapet: “Spurs fan here. This team is an improvement every game, they are starting to gel. Ten out of today’s 20-man are new to the team, it’ll take time. Today’s passing is crisper, faster, more accurate. Defense is solid, midfield is solid.
And I wish I had a dollar every time I’ve heard or read “He’s got to do do better.” Of course he does, it didn’t go in. If half of those did, teams would be scoring four times every game.”
53 mins: “Spurs’ motto is ‘To dare is to do’. Everton’s is Latin for something like ‘Nothing but the best will do’. Are they having a laugh? Would someone, anyone, please do a goal, for the love of all that is precious?!” Peter Oh is at the end of his tether.
51 mins: Tarkowski shoves Marmoush into the advertising boards with some 1970s style defending. Ouch.
49 mins: Close! Everton nearly break the deadlock, George beats Gray on the left and dinks in a dangerous cross to the back stick… Barry heads goalwards and Kinsky has no idea where the ball is and is massicely fortunate that it strikes him on the back of the head and deflects wide. Nervy moments for Tottenham.
46mins: Peeeeeep. Here we go. Oh, what’s this – a shot on target by Tottenham!Sadly Fernandes’ effort is a grubber along the turf that barely reaches Pickford. The Spurs fans cheer ironically, they are well aware of the barren stats.
“Here is my early prediction” writes JP. “Teams will struggle to reach 70 points. The team getting 75 will surely be champions. Whether Arsenal get to ninety or they just about scrap to 70-75 remains to be seen.”
Both these sides would snatch your hand and plenty else off for that. Here the come for the second half, can Spurs end their goal drought? Can they even get a shot on target? Let’s find out.
“Very unusual to have gotten to half-time in an Everton MBM without a nervous/exasperated/very occasionally contented email from Mary Waltz on the West Coast of America” writes Justin Kavanagh. “I can understand those Spurs fans who have given up the ghost on this season already, but Everton seem to have steadied the ship, so presumably she’s got something more important on today.”
Jamie Redknapp has the audacity to disagree with Chris in Corfu and says on Sky Sports that “Savio has looked sharp, he’s been the bright one on the pitch.”
Half Time: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Everton
A scruffy half comes to a close with Everton’s corner being cleared away easily. Spurs go another half, three on the bounce now, without a shot on target. Everton have come back into it after being nowhere for the first fifteen minutes, De Zerbi’s men started quickly out of the blocks but just had no killer pass or end product.
46 mins: Close! Garner swings in the free kick without too much venom, it is on target but Kinsky can palm it wide without too much alarm. One more minute of added time and an Everton corner.
45 mins: Dewsbury-Hall attacks the Spurs box on the left flank and Fernandes gives away a needless free kick with his arms all over the Everton player. Free kick in a dangerous position for the visitors…
43 mins: “Savio is really frustrating, just like at City, his last ball is shockingly bad” chunters Chris in Corfu. Both sides have been guilty of sloppy play in the last twenty minutes. It hasn’t been a vintage half, the fast start has petered out into a turgid affair.
41 min: Everton have not been able to keep possession at all, a loose ball is sprayed out carelessly and Spurs are able to regroup from the back.
40 mins: Some boos and jeers from the home fans as they show their frustration. “I can’t help thinking that it might be handy if one of the vast legions of coaches, set piece experts and other blokes on the respective benches suggested maybe aiming the small white thing in the general direction of the big white things at either end of the pitch. Just a thought.”
have you done you coaching badges Stephen McCrossan?
38 mins: Still no shot on target for Spurs despite plenty of attacking posession as another goalless half ticks on.
37 mins: Gah. Not a good corner, over hit and curled straight out over the back post.