And they nearly fashioned a victor late on, with Stekelenburg producing two exceptional saves in the final ten minutes, the first from substitute Vincent Janssen and the second from a Lamela strike that took a deflection on it’s way towards the goal.
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And right on half time, Deulofeu missed a golden chance to double the hosts’ lead, racing onto Rose’s poor back pass but could only find the gloves of Vorm, where Lukaku would have surely found the back of the net.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman was content with a draw to start the season.
Ashley Williams became the third new recruit through the door of Goodison Park on Wednesday, joining Maarten Stekelenburg and Idrissa Gana Gueye as new boys at Finch Farm. He might have had a few choice words at half-time here and took matters into his own hands ten minutes into the second half by introducing Vincent Janssen, a summer signing from AZ Alkmaar, for Eric Dier.
The Dutch goalkeeper pulled off two superb saves in the final 10 minutes against Spurs on Saturday to keep the game at 1-1. “But the team will be strong on Saturday”.
He also made it clear striker Oumar Niasse has no future at Goodison Park, saying: “He can make his transfer because he is not in my opinion the future, what we need in his position”. But the second half was totally different. The were very motivated.
“We need to analyse what happened but in the end it is the first game of the season and there are a lot of things to do”.
“We started the game slowly with a lack of energy and I am very disappointed with that”, Pochettino said.
“At the moment I’m the No.1 and I plan to finish the season as No.1”, he said.
“We knew it would be hard towards the end because they have really good players, scoring players”. We had the best chances. Youngsters Ross Barkley and John Stones fell away during the end of last season and Koeman is sure to push them on this year to realise their full potential.
“The reaction of the crowd and fans was fantastic”. The performance for 45 minutes was at the level I expect from the team.
As mentioned, Barkley was part of nearly all of Everton’s attacks and he created goalscoring opportunities for himself – one was a 45-yard free kick that forced Lloris to tip the ball over the bar, and the other was a header that he sent over the top from six yards out.
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The two sides were locked in a stalemate, as Idrissa Gueye impressed in the heart of Everton’s midfield throughout as Spurs started to play with a objective and assert control. It starts by working hard and they need to improve in that.
