Tottenham fightback too late to avoid Everton defeat

Everton's blistering first-half display secured a 3-2 win over a woeful Tottenham Hotspur side as David Moyes earned his first victory since returning for a second spell as manager at Goodison Park on Sunday, piling more misery on the visitors.

Needing to get back to winning ways after picking up one in their previous 12 league matches, Everton took the game to their troubled opponents, racing into a two-goal lead inside 30 minutes through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Iliman Ndiaye.

Calvert-Lewin's fine finish was the first time his team had scored in a league game since Boxing Day, ending his own 16-match barren run stretching back to September.

Things went from bad to worse for Spurs in first-half stoppage time as young Archie Gray put through his own net to ensure Everton scored as many goals within one half of football as in their previous seven games in all competitions.

Goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison caused the home fans some concern late on but the hosts survived to record a win that moved 16th-placed Everton four points clear of the bottom three and within four of sorry Spurs who are one place higher.

"I'm delighted with how we went today, we needed a win for the lads and the club," Calvert-Lewin told Sky Sports.

"Everything clicked today. You go through periods where you're not hitting the back of net or getting the rub of the green. We were defensively solid and built from that."

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On paper, this encounter looked like the perfect platform for Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham side to start to turn around their faltering season, which remarkably sees them looking over their shoulders at the drop zone rather than up the table.

Spurs had lost one of their previous 24 games at Goodison Park prior to Sunday's trip north, while they have won more points from Everton than against any other Premier League team.

Everton have only just sacked their manager Sean Dyche as they again find themselves battling relegation, failing to even score in nine of their previous 11 league matches

You would not have thought it was Everton struggling for goals though as Calvert-Lewin twisted and turned the Spurs backline inside out before opening the scoring 13 minutes in.

Ndiaye, one of the few bright attacking sparks for Everton this term, compounded Spurs' misery with another fine finish on the half-hour mark after bamboozling Radu Dragusin as the hosts continued to bombard the beleaguered Antonin Kinsky's goal.

Tottenham's Gray was then unfortunate to put through his own net after James Tarkowski headed the ball back across the area.

The visitors dominated possession after the break and at least gave themselves a chance of getting something from the match after Kulusevski's fine lofted finish before Richarlison, against his former club, slid the ball home in stoppage time.

The close scoreline, however, flattered injury-hit Spurs, whose season continues to lurch from one crisis to the next.

It was Tottenham's 12th Premier League loss this term, making it only the sixth campaign in which they have lost as many as 12 games in their first 22 matches of a league season.

"It is a difficult result," Spurs coach Postecoglou told Sky Sports. "We struggled to really get in the game in the first half and that gave Everton and momentum.

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb but the players certainly tried to claw the game back but we just fell short. We couldn't really take control of the game. We had some chances where we probably should have capitalised early on, but in the end it wasn't enough."