Spurs were held by Everton at Goodison Park on the opening match-day of the English Premier League.
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Erik Lamela’s second-half header rescued a 1-1 draw for Tottenham Hotspur and denied new Everton manager Ronald Koeman a winning start at Goodison Park on Saturday.
However, they should face a motivated Everton side as they endured a poor season previous year and new boss Ronald Koeman is determined to improve upon their 11th-placed finish from last term.
Koeman, who is looking to rejuvenate Everton after leaving Southampton in June to succeed Roberto Martinez, said: “I am happy about the team performance”.
Spurs should have won the game but were denied by two outstanding saves by Everton’s new goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg. Everton were the most obliging of opponents, slightly fortunate to take an early lead and positively delusional if they imagined they would be able to hang on to it for 85 minutes.
The Merseyside outfit impressed with a lively, organised display in a first half that saw Ross Barkley’s fifth-minute free-kick give them the lead and Gerard Deulofeu’s attempt to add a second in the closing stages thwarted by Michel Vorm. “But I think there are enough good reasons to explain why we need more time”.
For the purposes of these predictions, we’re going to take a few news items at face value.
Spurs were satisfied with a point against Everton on Saturday but the 1-1 draw was ultimately a frustrating start for a team that Vertonghen believes are stronger than last term.
Barkley failed to break into Roy Hodgson’s England team at Euro 2016, but it seems as though he will be a pivotal figure in Ronald Koeman’s formation as he scored the first league goal of the manager’s reign.
“I think teams look at us in a different way now”.
Tottenham, meanwhile, have the unenviable task of lifting themselves up from the heartbreaking end to last season, in which they not only lost out to Leicester in the title race, but a 5-1 defeat to 10-man Newcastle allowed Arsenal to pip them to second place.
Romelu Lukaku did not figure for Everton amid speculation Chelsea will make a renewed bid to sign him, but Koeman insisted an ankle injury and not any impending transfer was responsible for the Belgian striker’s absence.
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Tottenham took control of the final 15 minutes of the match as they forced Everton into their own half in pursuit of a victor, but the Toffees continued to look threatening on the break. As players we know what we did wrong and what we have got to work on this year.
