Tottenham Hotspur 1 Everton 0
Tottenham Adebayor 65'
Man of the match Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)
London // The truth lay in manager Tim Sherwood’s touchline antics. A win it may have been, but a comfortable one it was not.
He ranted and raved, he kicked chewing gum and kicked water bottles, jumped up and down in fury and yet, somehow, his Tottenham Hotspur side left with three points.
His record in the Premier League now stands at six wins, two draws and a defeat in nine games since replacing Andre Villas-Boas, a run that has lifted Spurs to fifth and within three points of a Uefa Champions League qualifying spot – even he does not quite seem to know how he has done it.
Poor Villas-Boas must look on and wonder why he got none of Sherwood’s luck.
Back in Villas-Boas’s day, Tottenham averaged more shots per game than any other side, but struggled to score.
Against Everton, having been outplayed for much of the game, Spurs needed just one shot on target to secure victory.
“If you’d told me that Spurs would have one shot on target, before the game I’d have taken that,” said the Everton manager Roberto Martinez. “If you played the game nine times, we would have won it eight.”
Perhaps there is significance in the identity of the player who had that one shot for Spurs, Emmanuel Adebayor, who seized on Kyle Walker’s quick free-kick after 65 minutes to register his seventh goal since being restored to the side by Sherwood.
But at least as important has been the fact that Sherwood has had the breaks Tottenham were so lacking earlier in the season.
This perhaps balanced out the game against Newcastle, when Spurs battered their opponents only to find the goalkeeper Tim Krul in inspired form.
For much of the first half, Spurs were distinctly second-best, slower to react, slower to pass and slower to close down.
Sherwood, always animated on the touchline, was constantly at the edge of his technical area urging his side to pick up the pace.
Had Everton had Romelu Lukaku, you fancy they would have had the game wrapped up within the first half hour. As it was, they had Steven Naismith chugging away at centre-forward, repeatedly laying the ball off to Leon Osman.
He drew a stunning save from Hugo Lloris with a first-time shot after six minutes, but for all Everton’s neat football, there was a lack of punch.
Spurs were far better after half time, pressing higher and playing with greater tempo, although Sherwood was still concerned that his side did not play with enough “risk” and that they were not rotating enough in midfield.
After the bluff 4-4-2 of his early days, he adopted the 4-3-3 Villas-Boas used, and his assessment of the caution that at times stifled the team early in the season was surely right.
Martinez was surely right to be positive.
“If we keep producing that level of performance,” he said, “I hope football is not going to be that harsh on us.”
But there is a sense that Spurs, amid their fortune, are beginning to learn.
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