Tottenham 1 Everton 1:TOTTENHAM APPEAR to be coping with the twin demands of competing in the Champions League while challenging for a place in next season's tournament – up to a point, anyway, and the one they took from the draw with Everton has kept them in the pack that will spend most of the season in or around the top four.
Their performance in coming from behind for the fourth time this season to get something from a game confirmed the powers of recovery they showed in Milan three nights earlier.
Yet in the end their failure to take more of their chances, several of which fell to Peter Crouch, cost them a routine home win.
Everton dealt rather better with Bale than the European champions had done and this was due largely to the experience and defensive expertise of Phil Neville, their captain and right-back who, with the assistance of Séamus Coleman, ensured the young Welshman found few opportunities to cut in from the touchline and let fly with his awesome left foot.
“Gareth’s been murdering everyone,” Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, said, “but I knew Neville wouldn’t be easy because he knows what he’s doing. I think he’s an underrated player. He did a decent job with Gareth, as good as anybody’s done with him for a long time.”
For a few minutes Leighton Baines, Everton’s left-back, appeared to have given David Moyes’s side the initiative after leaving Heurelho Gomes helpless as his free-kick cleared the line of defenders and found the top near corner of the net. Then Tim Howard failed to deal with Alan Hutton’s high centre to the far post, Crouch played the ball back off his solar plexus and Rafael van der Vaart brought the scores level with his fifth Spurs goal.
With Crouch and Van der Vaart again an item, a win for Tottenham would surely follow and that might have been the case had Crouch not risen for a free header in first-half stoppage time, again from Hutton’s centre, only to nod the ball straight into Howard’s hands. Afterwards Redknapp was at pains to emphasise the importance of Crouch’s height as an attacking alternative when faced with the thicket of bodies Tottenham were apt to encounter in the approaches to Everton’s goal.
“He gives us an important option,” the Spurs manager said, but there are times when Crouch’s 6ft 7in should give him no option other than scoring.
Redknapp fielded questions about his attack, which made a change from ones about his defence. After a string of injuries Spurs have already had 11 partnerships at centre-back this season.
Younes Kaboul and William Gallas had been once around the floor before Saturday and found few problems containing Yakubu Ayegbeni’s thrusts through the middle while keeping a weather eye on Tim Cahill. Kaboul’s ability to bring the ball out and use it constructively partly made up for the absence from midfield of the injured Tom Huddlestone.
Spurs now have a week’s rest before they go to Manchester United on Saturday, with Inter at White Hart Lane three days later. Life near the top can be tough.
