Tottenham let down by three as ‘MNF curse’ strikes in Everton draw

Tottenham were fortunate to escape from Goodison Park with a point following their 1-1 draw with Everton on Monday night. Spurs, once again, looked like a shadow of their former selves on the night but were handed a lifeline after their opponents were reduced to 10 men.

Harry Kane scored the opening goal on the night, coolly dispatching his penalty past England teammate Jordan Pickford after Cristian Romero was brought down inside the box by Michael Keane.

Spurs never truly looked like breaking the deadlock on the night until the 58th minute when Abdoulaye Doucoure was shown a straight red card for violent conduct after striking Kane in the face following a strong 50/50 between the pair.

Tottenham then appeared to sit back and invite pressure from that point onwards, though a crunching tackle from Lucas Moura saw the visitors reduced to 10 men too. Keane then went from zero to hero in the 90th minute when he smashed home an uncharacteristic wonder goal into the far corner to level the tie. Express Sport takes a look at five things learned on the drama-filled night…

Monday Night Football curse

Stats have shown that being the away team on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football is starting to become a curse, with only two sides winning away from home in the last 25 matches prior to Everton vs Tottenham.

And Spurs took that tally to 26 after their lack of know-how and game management meant that Everton were given a chance to earn a point despite having a numerical advantage.

Three Spurs stars disappoint

Dejan Kulusevski urged his team-mates to stand by the decision of Tottenham to sack Antonio Conte, though his performance against Everton will not have done him any favours in proving why Cristian Stellini should continue to put his faith in him. The Sweden international has cruised through matches without making any impact for a matter of months, having not scored since January 19, and he was never truly a threat on Monday night either.

Toffees defender Ben Godfrey did well against the Juventus loanee and, at times, forced the forward to drift over to the opposite flank in order to receive the ball and be involved in the build-up. And Son Heung-min was also disappointing, wasting a great one-on-one at 0-0 in the first half.

And of course Lucas – sent off six minutes after coming on – badly let Spurs down and put more pressure on the away team at a time where they led 1-0 and were already absorbing plenty of pressure from the hosts.

Stellini makes his first tactical tweak

Speaking last week, Stellini mentioned that he would make his own managerial decisions for the remainder of the season whilst using Conte’s 3-4-3 system as a base to build off of. The biggest change that the acting head coach made was pushing Ivan Perisic higher up the pitch in a desperate attempt to help Son Heung-min bounce back to form.

Having the Croatian international in a more attacking role on the left – rather than deeper like a natural wingback – forced Son to move inside more frequently, which has seen him to best effect previously due to how it enables him to link up with Kane. However, the Korea international struggled once again and did not seem at all likely to bounce back to his best despite admitting he felt his poor form was a key factor in Conte’s sacking.

Immature Doucoure

Sean Dyche will know better than anyone that he cannot be without key players during a relegation battle, and he will be for the next three games due to a moment of madness from Doucoure.