The revival of Tottenham Hotspur under George Graham is not yet a renaissance. For the moment, however, White Hart Lane will surely be happy to settle for the mixture of hard work and opportunism which saw Everton roundly beaten yesterday after Chris Armstrong had scored a hattrick in the second half.
Tottenham's first home win over Everton since August, 1994, confirmed the new resilience and strength of character the team have acquired. For the best part of an hour Tottenham had difficulty extricating themselves from the fine mesh of passing and movement which Walter Smith's side spread across the midfield.
With Duncan Ferguson gone, Everton are no longer inclined to play the ball forward long and high. While this makes their football more interesting to watch it has done little to improve their scoring potential and yesterday they paid heavily for missing chances during their most dominant period.
Everton came to White Hart Lane beaten once in six Premiership matches but still gave the impression of a side for whom a goal was a rare treat. The turning point of the game came nine minutes into the second half when Nick Barmby, starting his first game in three months, saw a shot driven through a crowd smartly saved by Ian Walker. After that Everton unravelled like an old jumper.
Initially Tottenham looked to the close control of David Ginola on the left to give them some relief from the madding crowd. But the Frenchman found it hard to make headway against Everton's determined covering and, as the tackles came in, the referee Graham Poll was unwilling to buy tickets for the Comedie Francaise.
The threat of a scoreless stalemate grew as Darren Anderton and Allan Nielsen consistently ran into Olivier Dacourt and John Collins and vice-versa. With four Tottenham defenders marking one Everton attacker, Ibrahima Bakayoko, while Barmby and Don Hutchison lent the Ivory Coast striker only intermittent support, it was hard to see where and when a goal would arrive.
Nevertheless one did arrive in the 24th minute, instigated by Ruel Fox's persistence in reaching the ball near the left-hand byline before it could go out of play. Fox laid the ball back to Ginola and from his centre Armstrong rose at the far post to head for goal, only to see the ball rebound off David Unsworth's back. But, as it dropped, Les Ferdinand flicked a neatly-improvised shot past Thomas Myhre with the outside of his right foot.
Everton needed only seven minutes to draw level. Having broken up one movement, Tottenham's defenders were caught out of position by the swiftness with which Hutchison played the ball back into the penalty area and Bakayoko slipped through a large gap to nod it past Walker.
Three minutes later Bakayoko turned an ankle and hobbled off, to be replaced immediately by Danny Cadamarteri. Then Bakayoko, having lost his limp, re-emerged demanding to be allowed back on. The Everton bench sent him to the dressing room as firmly as any referee.
Three minutes past the hour Armstrong restored Tottenham's lead after Anderton's precisely-judged lob had caught the Everton defence square.
Myhre was so convinced that Armstrong had controlled the ball with a hand before scoring that he stood still appealing as the striker went pass him, but the goal stood and the others brooked less argument. Fifteen minutes from the end Ferdinand's backheel sent Armstrong in for his second and another pass from Anderton enabled him to complete his first hat-trick for Tottenham with a resounding shot.
Tottenham: Walker, Carr, Nielsen (Clemence 46), Fox, Anderton, Ferdinand, Armstrong (Iversen 89), Ginola, Sinton, Campbell, Young. Subs Not Used: Baardsen, Calderwood, Edinburgh. Booked: Ferdinand. Goals: Ferdinand 24, Armstrong 63, 76, 81.
Everton: Myhre, Ball, Dacourt, Unsworth, Collins (Oster 76), Barmby, Hutchison, Short (Cleland 6), Bakayoko (Cadamarteri 33), Dunne, Bilic. Subs Not Used: Simonsen, Grant. Booked: Cadamarteri, Hutchison. Goals: Bakayoko 31. Attendance: 36,053.
Referee: G Poll (Tring).
