Spurs finished the season with a well earned win, leaving them a creditable fifth. Not as many points as last year but a higher placed finish. It felt better too.
Whatever Tottenham fans feel about this season, a look at our opponents shows the grass is not always greener. Despite having Roberto Martinez, a much praised manager, and
Romalu Lukaku, a player many Spurs fans wanted in the summer – myself included – it’s been a miserable season for the Merseysiders.
Last year Everton were fifth, one place above Tim Sherwood’s Tottenham. This time round they failed to even make the top half of the table, sitting in eleventh position, level on points with Sam Allardyce’s West Ham.
Injuries amongst the Spurs fullbacks have left Pochettino with a selection headache of late. Peculiarly, the solution here was to field Nabil Bentaleb at left back. The Algerian didn’t look too out of place. He easily topped the team for tackles and interceptions while providing an option out wide.
The switch allowed Dembele back into midfield which seemed to provide the team with some balance. The first half was one of the better performances of the season from Pochettino’s side, although Everton played into our hands somewhat – they seem to play a blend of open yet passive football.
Spurs dominated possession, winning it back quickly as soon as Everton briefly got hold of the ball. In midfield we were moving it quickly with quick passing and good movement.
The first real chance came for Lamela as Eriksen won the ball and played him in. The Argentine did well to get a shot off but Howard was equal to it.
Soon after Everton had a sight of goal as Mirallas found himself clean through. His tame shot was gratefully collected by Lloris. The Belgian winger was Everton’s most dangerous player, alongside debutante Brendan Galloway whose energy caused Spurs problems.
Harry Kane has had a minor goal drought recently. He hadn’t registered in the last four games but here he reaffirmed his poaching credentials.
Bentaleb swung in a cross and ridiculously both Spurs players in the box fell over. The ball came back out to Dier who delivered a fantastic ball – his ability to put in a cross has been one of the stories of the end of our season. This time Kane made no mistake, getting between the Everton centre backs to glance the ball into the far corner.
As time ran out on the first half, Everton had their best opportunity. Barclay sliding in Coleman whose shot across goal was palmed away by Lloris. It was a sign of things to come as the home side wrestled back some of the momentum after the break.
The second half was something of a non-event. After a first period that showed the movement and passing we have been missing, the second was a triumph for our much criticised defence. Mirallas had chances, Lloris saved at the feet of Galloway but it never felt like Spurs lead was under that much threat.
With 60% of the possession and out-shooting our opponents 16-9 this was a deserved Spurs victory. Taking fifth place might not mean that much but finishing above loud-mouthed Liverpool and Pochettino’s old boys on the south coast, was a nice ending to the season.
We now enter the dreaded Europa League but at least this victory puts us straight into the group phase, avoiding the disruptive effect of the early qualifying rounds.
Here’s to next season.
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Is it good we made the Europa League? Was this a better season than last year? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Anything But Penalties 
Nabil Bentaleb is Algerian not Moroccan need to do your home work.
Thanks, corrected. Momentary brain freeze! He was of course born in France.
I’m optimistic about next season. Check out my thoughts over on my blog.
A good read. Totally agree, especially on Schneiderlin.
‘All’s well that ends well’ for Spurs. Luckily, they won those last two crucial matches, beating Hull and Everton. Against the latter, quick movement with the ball and quick clearing and passing of the ball, lacking in many previous matches, made all the difference. It has not been a bad season at all and hopefully they can improve on consistency in the next season and do better. I would suggest, to make things better for them, that they buy a very good striker to play alongside Kane. A good defender would also be desirable as our defence has let us down too often.
Agreed and I would add a central midfielder with some experience and leadership skills – preferably Schneiderlin.
I agree. The midfield needs re-enforcing, too.. It would be wonderful if we could have someone like Schnneiderlin…James Wilner would also be a great addition if only we could get him…
It’s the hope that kills you. As Levy said in his programme notes, victories over Arsenal and Chelsea raised our expectations mid season, that we then failed to live up to.
All in all, a Cup Final and 5th place is a more than satisfactory first season for the new regime and there are plenty of individuals that emerge with credit.
Kane, Lloris and Rose (I say helping myself to a giant slice of humble pie) all had excellent seasons while Eriksen, Chadli, Lamela, Bentaleb, Dier and Mason all impressed to varying degrees.
A few players have not quite cut the mustard, meanwhile I would be a lot happier if our manager didn’t seem quite so stubborn in his system and selections as I think we could have done better this season by not overplaying our midfield trio in Dec/Jan/Feb.
Onwards and upwards, there can only be one winner etc etc.
I pretty much agree with that summary. It was curious how stubborn Pochettino was about system and personnel. Maybe he thinks it’s important to make a stand to get the players to buy into his ideas?
I hope that after this game, the club will not think about selling Lamela. I know he still has not shown his full transfer value and many claims that he is overrated, but he has been consistently improving and has shown great promise in the past few games.
As for Liverpool, guess that not only did they pull a ‘spurs’ but they managed to do even worse than us :)
Also, let’s hope Tactical Tim do us a favour next week for the cup.
I really hope Tim wins it. Another FA Cup for Arsenal would be hard to take.
I think Lamela has shown enough to be kept assuming there are no big offers for him. Anyone in the eleven at the end of the season has probably done enough.