Everton 1-0 Tottenham - Match Report

By Chris Deacon / August 12, 2013

Everton 1 - Jelavic (22) Tottenham Hotspur 0 Everton climbed to ninth in the Premier League as they beat Tottenham 1-0 at Goodison Park on Saturday evening. Spurs have now lost three league games in a row, which last happened in 2008 and led to the sacking of Juande Ramos. Nikica Jelavic scored the only goal on his first start in blue, powering home Leon Osman€™s cross from deep inside the box. With quarter of an hour left on the clock Spurs had the ball in the net but Jermaine Defoe€™s celebrations were cut short by an offside flag. And in the last few seconds of added time, Luis Saha crashed a close range shot off of the post. Everton dominated the early stages of the game, taking complete control of the possession and having the better chances. Marouane Fellaini worked the first opportunity, with 15 minutes gone, as he broke forward into the box but his fierce effort was saved at point blank range by Friedel. Osman created the goal shortly afterwards; he broke away from Younes Kaboul into the box, laid the ball back and an unmarked Jelavic slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal. In the second half the Londoners dominated. Rafael Van der Vaart replaced Sandro and the shape of the team changed dramatically to an attacking 4-2-4. Jermaine Defoe had his goal ruled out and then Saha fired one over the bar from the six-yard-box. The best second period chances fell to Saha and Luka Modric but they were both denied by goalkeeper Tim Howard. Van der Vaart also hit the bar in the last 10 minutes with Everton well and truly hanging on. REF: M. Halsey ATTENDANCE: 34,992 Everton squad (4-4-1-1): Howard; Neville (C), Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Drenthe (Rodwell 65), Osman, Fellaini, Coleman (Jagielka 82); Cahill; Jelavic (Stracqualursi 78) Unused Subs: Mucha, Hibbert, Gueye, Anichebe Tottenham squad (4-4-2): Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, King (C), Assou-Ekotto; Bale, Parker (Livermore 86), Sandro (Van der Vaart 69), Modric; Defoe, Adebayor (Saha 54) Unused Subs: Cudicini, Nelson, Kranjcar, Rose