Key events
This was mainly down to Richarlison, who was the target of a fine cross from the right. He could have gone for goal, but he saw Sarr in the middle and squared it, one header acting as the assist for another. So it’s all over bar the added time, which will be five minutes.
GOAL! Everton 0-3 Spurs (Sarr 89)
Game over!
88 min Chance? No, offside against Pape Sarr, who ran through and played a cutback. Serves him right for coming on when I wasn’t looking. But then …
87 min Possession for the whole game is now 53-47 to Everton, after being 63-37 to Spurs for much of the first half. The tables have turned, yet the scoreboard has refused to budge.
86 min Everton sub: Moyes sends on Alcaraz for Gueye, a forward for a midfielder. May as well.
86 min And now Richarlison charges down a cross from Garner. He’s making his mark on his own derby.
84 min And now Richarlison is back in his own box, heading a corner away.
83 min Spurs flicker on the couner, only for Bergvall’s through ball to be scuffed, so it can’t reach Richarlison.
80 min Grealish wins a corner with sheer doggedness, but Everton can’t do anything with it … except, eventually, winning another corner.
79 min Chance! A good cross from Dewsbury-Hall on the left turns into a free header for Röhl, but he can’t keep it down.
76 min Grealish, still the main man for Everton, starts a very Man City move – jinking, threading a short perpendicular ball to Dewsbury-Hall, who slips it on to Thierno Barry … but again Vicario is alert, gathering the ball as it skids on the sodden turf.
74 min Block! Palhinha’s turn to save the day as a flick-on by Tarkowski sets up a crisp shot from someone, possibly Gueye.
73 min Save! Ndiaye, supplied by Grealish, takes a low shot through the crowd, and Vicario does very well to see it, let alone stop it.
72 min As Everton play out from the back, Grealish is fouled by Bentancur. Grealish feels it’s a yellow card – and it is, for him, as he makes his point rather too loudly.
71 min As the fans get soaked, the game gets scrappy.
69 min Everton want a penalty as Tarkowski goes down in the box, but the refs don’t agree. “Would have been very soft,” says Gary Nev.
67 min David Moyes sees Thomas Frank’s subs and brings on two of his own – Barry for Beto and Röhl for O’Brien, so Garner moves to right back, where he’s less likely to see yellow again.
66 min Spurs, as it stands, are third, on goal difference ahead of the mighty Sunderland.
65 min Save! Richarlison breaks free and finds himself one on one with his old mate Pickford. He hits the shot hard but straight at Pickford, who stands up and fends it off.
62 min The first subs come from Thomas Frank, who may have been alarmed by Everton’s dominance in the first 15 minutes of this half. He sends on Richarlison for Kolo Muani and Bergvall for Simons, who remains rather anonymous.
61 min It’s the 11th corner of the match (Everton 4, Spurs 7) and nothing comes of it as Kudus goes a bit too long.
60 min It’s Kudus … and kudos to the wall, which does its job and sends the ball off for a corner.
60 min The kick is dead centre, Porro or Kudus to take.
58 min Spurs attack, for once in this half. Garner flies in on Kudus, in the hole, and gets a yellow card – his fourth of the season.
58 min Richarlison is getting ready to come on.
57 min “The rain,” says Peter Drury, “is absolutely hammering down.”
54 min Chance! And save! Ndiaye shows up his mates with an excellent cross. Beto gets ahead of it but rescues himself with a scissor kick. It’s heading for the net until Vicario springs to his left and palms it away. Inspired stuff rom all three of them.
51 min Again, good work by Grealish; again, a disappointing cross from one of his teammates – Garner this time, curling the ball right into Vicario’s gloves.
51 min As rain appears on a camera, Grealish shimmies into the box, but when he squares the ball to O’Brien, the cross is a poor one. The downside of being your team’s best plaer.
49 min Everton reach the box, Dewsbury-Hall goes down, Craig Pawson says no pen, Grealish has a shot, Vicario makes a save.
48 min Spurs get the ball and use it to draw some neat triangles. Grealish trots back to mop up.
47 min Everton dominating possession in this half.
46 min In other news, the second half is under way.
According to Sky’s analysts, no PL centre-back has ever scored a hat-trick. Don’t tell Gabriel.
“You said the goal was disallowed for an Everton player interfering with the Spurs keeper,” writes Pete Dudley, “but in fact TWO players deliberately ran up to him and squeezed him out, both in offside positions. Not sure I agree [with Gary Neville] he wouldn’t have got the ball, he was impeded from adjusting his position just before that, in my view.”
Apparently Van de Ven is the first Spurs defender to score twice in the same match since Jan Vertonghen, 12 years ago. Do they spend more time on headers in the Low Countries?
“With the renewed focus on set pieces,” says Andy Flintoff, “and with standing your ground/blocking off defenders and goalkeepers at corners and free kicks, are we watching a renaissance of the 80s? Just waiting for big man-little man strike partnerships, the Position Of Maximum Opportunity (i.e. the far post), and midfielders hanging around the edge of the box for the second ball.
“Slightly more seriously, Everton might have got away with the disallowed goal if they’d only had one player baulking the goalkeeper rather than two (with the second behind him, and thus definitely offside).”
“Really this isn’t for you,” says Sully, “but I’m trying to follow you whilst following el classico. The minute by minute. Goes totally white screen when I attempt to scroll down. To follow the match flow.
“I am in Indonesia to be fair. Can you pass it on to the tech team. It’s very frustrating. Enjoying the score though being a born & bred scouser from Scottie Rd.”
“Kudos,” says Paul Jespersen, “to John Murray on BBC Radio Five, who actually pronounces Kudus correctly, unlike Sue Smith and all the other BBC pundits.” Ha. Not just the Beeb: it’s been Kudos from Gary Neville too.
“And that’s another shove on Pickford!” says Neil Fazakerley. “Booooooooooooo.”
HALF-TIME Everton 0-2 Spurs
It’s been a game of three corners. Spurs scored from one, against the run of play; Everton scored from one too, only to find the VAR and the ref chalking it off; and then Spurs scored from another. Micky van de Ven has both the goals, and he’s also been the most effective defender on the pitch. So Spurs have maintained their majestic away form, without playing all that well. And Everton are will spend the break wondering how to preserve their fine home record at the Hill Dickinson.
The corner, from Porro on the left, was a vicious inswinger. Van de Ven sauntered in front of Pickford and flicked it into the corner over his right shoulder. He’s on a hat-trick!
GOAL! Everton 0-2 Spurs (Van de Ven 45+6)
Van de Ven, he’s done it again!
45+5 min Another Spurs corner, and another…
45+4 min It’s yet another good corner, and Bentancur might have converted it had it not been for a slight deflection off Grealish’s head. The ball may now be lightly coated in pomade.
45+3 min Free kick on the left to Spurs, taken by Kudus, headed away for a corner.
45+2 min Spurs attack, for once. Johnson fizzes in a cross that might have brought an own goal from a defender with less experience than Tarkowski.
45 min There will be SEVEN more minutes.
44 min Everton have a corner on the left, which Garner takes. Vicario flaps it away. Kolo Muani dribbles away, but Ndiaye produces some magic to rob him and cross. Like so many crosses, it goes unconverted.
43 min Spurs continue to have more of the ball, Everton more of the threat. Grealish, sneaking into the middle, slips in Beto, who mysteriously opts to go backwards, leaving Grealish to throw his hands up.
42 min “Fine,” says Neil Fazakerley, “I can see why that’s interfering with play, but for the Spurs goal Pickford looks to be blocked from jumping for the original cross to me.”
40 min Another good cross from Everton’s right: Ndiaye curls it in and it’s Van de Ven to the rescue again with a deflection that wrong-foots the waiting Beto.
39 min Van de Ven, the only scorer so far, is needed in his own box as a fine move, orchestrated by Dewsbury-Hall, yields a whipped cross from the right. Van de Ven meets it with a sliding block.
38 min “Afternoon Tim, hope you’re well.” It’s our man in Scotland, Simon McMahon. “Gary Naylor shouldn’t worry himself too much about missing the game at Lesser Hampden yesterday. An early red card for Queen’s Park resulted in an eventual shot count of 23-1 for visitors Ayr United, but it ended 0-0. I hope that will be of some small comfort for being stuck on a train in Warrington instead of at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. Though I’m not sure that disallowed Everton goal will have improved his mood. You’ve got to laugh, eh..?”
36 min Out of nowhere, Beto storms into the Spurs box. He even surprises himself and ends up tripping over the ball, which is gratefully gathered by Vicario.
34 min An outbreak of argy-bargy in the Everton box. Grealish, not content with being the talisman, appoints himself as the spokesman too.
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