Fourth For Fighting

The battle for European places goes on in the Barclays Premier League (BPL). In tonight’s sizzler between Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, both teams came away with a deserved point after a rambunctious, full-blooded contest at White Hart Lane. Tottenham went in front after only 33 seconds when a zombie-like Everton defence allowed Emmanuel Adebayor to acrobatically strike home Jan Vertonghen’s brilliant left-wing cross. It was the Premiership’s second-fastest goal of the season behind Robin van Persie’s opener for Manchester United against West Ham United.

Everton were momentarily dazed but as is their enduring ethos, slowly but surely they mounted a fightback and it was not a big surprise when captain Phil Jagielka headed home from Leighton Baines’ right-wing corner after 20 minutes. Spurs started the second half on the front foot, but it was Everton who wrestled their way into the lead, somewhat against the run of play. Kevin Mirallas, the player on form recently, latched onto a loose ball and embarked on an increasingly patented slalom-type, ‘catch-me-if-you-can’, solo run goal to take Everton through the roof. Spurs hustled and puffed and applied more and more pressure, and just 4 minutes from time, it paid off when Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson slotted home the rebound after Adebayor hit the post.