Ross Barkley scored for Everton in the 5th minute subjecting Spurs to a cagey encounter in search of an equalizer to no avail until the second half.
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Everton’s goal came from a set-piece and Lloris might be disappointed that neither he nor his defence dealt with it, as Barkley’s teasing ball in from out wide missed the heads it was intended for and bounced in beyond the reach of the France global. At the beginning, they scored early and then it was a hard game to manage for us.
“I just told them, “If I have the opportunity to kill you then I kill everyone”, Pochettino said on their failed tilt at the title. But the second half was totally different.
On transfers he added: “I have spoken that we may get one or two. Maybe they can play together or maybe we can play Vincent or Harry”. We have made two good signings [Vincent Janssen and Victor Wanyama] to help the team. “We know the competition in the Premier League is getting more tough every season, because every club is capable of buying top players, and now we can see the best managers in Europe in the Premier League – a lot of them”. They’ll want to pick up points while they can before their schedule gets too tough.
“We conceded the goal very early in the game and it was a big thing for us to manage that and hard to recover the game”.
“I am very happy with the way that we handled the game, how we managed it and how we finished it”, he said. Whether this will interrupt the series in the first match of the season for the team?
A few days after selling John Stones to Manchester City, Everton showed a solidity in defense that was rare under Martinez as skipper Phil Jagielka and new signing Idrissa Gueye blunted Spurs’ efforts in attack.
Spurs looked ring-rusty in the first 45 at Goodison but after Mauricio Pochettino tweaked the tactics, bringing on new boy Janssen for defensive midfielder Eric Dier, they equalised through an Erik Lamela header and then looked more likely to win the match.
“It was not the way we wanted it to go but that is football”.
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The result, arugably a fair one on the day, means that Everton have now drawn their last four opening-day fixtures but there was much to be optimistic about for home fans looking for an improvement on last season, particularly at Goodison Park. But if Poche is more or less satisfied with the second half today, who am I to argue?
