Spurs Tread Water in Their Draw with Everton

Tottenham already had their Top Four status in the bag before this weekend began, and it looked like it.

Dudes already had their heads in Madrid.

And why not? The Champions League final against Liverpool will be the highlight of their season.

But it wouldn't have been such a bad idea for Spurs to show they're gonna be primed for it.

 

Instead, this 2-2 draw at Tottenham's shiny new stadium showed how far Everton has to go to compete with the Premiership's top flight.

The Toffs were going all-out in a meaningless match while it was all Spurs could do to say interested.

 

Not for the paying customers, either, but at least they could be occupied with all the new ground's features, most of which will take a week's paycheck to use.

Anyway, Spurs did start the afternoon in good form, popping their opener only three minutes in.

Eric Dier took advantage of Everton's Yerry Mina failing to clear an Erik Lamela corner. The ball fell to Dier, who smashed it past Jordan Pickford:

 

That seemed to be sufficient to satisfy them, so they slowed the pace and kept most of the possession all the way into the break.

Everton put up more of a fight in the second half, and started threatening goalkeeper Hugo Lloris on a regular basis. They ultimately leveled in the 69th minute when Gylfi Sigurðsson played the ball onto the feet of Theo Walcott, who cut inside from the right and drilled it home past Lloris:

 

What's more, the Toffees took the lead three minutes later.

After a corner, Lloris somehow saved a header, but it rebounded back, and after some mayhem, Cenk Tosun finally found the back of the net:

 

However, Everton's bliss only lasted three minutes, as Christian Eriksen superbly curled in a free-kick home from 25 yards:

 

After three goals in six minutes, both sides seemed to figure it to be enough for the day. Tottenham was on to greater things ...

... and Everton hadn't learned anything they didn't know already.

Eighth place is an accurate assessment of their season.