Away Draw At Everton Shocker…. I’m Serious.

let's not all get on top of him, we're not katie price after all.

It did feel like a loss; and this just goes to show how much the bar has been raised this year in terms of ambition. I personally think the whole thing allows us to see the true nature of being a spurs fan. Firstly we generally find ourselves frustrated at the fact that until recently and during that one season when Martin Jol forced the article, we’ve always found ourselves looking at the prospect of finishing mid-table with a chance of flexing our muscles in the UEFA cup. Most of the time this usually results in a kind of autonomous twitch in spurs fans along with the denial that we are consigned to such a fate. It comes as no surprise to me that when we find ourselves nestling at the higher echelons on the table and finally in the realm where we feel at home, our ambition and expectations are almost automatically that of a club that deserves to be there. I for one would certainly never deny us this and I feel that this hunger for success in our club is what ultimately separates us from the likes of Aston Villa and indeed Everton who find themselves negotiating their success in a moderate way.

To react as the majority of us have to an away draw at Goodison Park is brilliant; because it simply goes to show that as fans we’re looking to consign the kind of capitulating performances of the past to where they belong, in the ‘dark ages’ of a club that is finding it’s head rather rapidly appearing above the clouds. Though as they say, anything can happen in football, and for that matter it would be better to make sure that we’re getting there sooner rather than later.

The game itself was a very aggressive affair, especially in the first half where several yellow cards were picked up by either side, Bale had to come on for Assou-Ekotto for this and also a fair bit of haphazard defending which I think we all could feel may have ended with us a man down. This may have been due to Kranjcar’s insistence of playing quite a fluid role that left Benoit and later Gareth exposed. Whilst shirking his defensive responsibilities somewhat Niko was fairly cool working with an improving Palacios to seek out opportunities for our front men. Who unfortunately lacked a certain sharpness today.

The two goals came relatively early in the second half and seemingly would have killed of the game if it weren’t for the lack of discipline that allowed Everton to commit the majority of their determined players into attacks in our final third every 3 or so minutes. Note that our two goals were relatively well taken in comparison, Dawson with a diving header moving off a defender, and Defoe exploiting his new found hook-up with Aaron Lennon providing a driven low cross to smash past Tim Howard.

So it came to pass that they managed to score firstly from Yakubu with about 15 minutes of the match to go which brought on the blitz resulting in an equalizer from Cahill; both goals a product of a saturation of Everton players in our 6 yard box. At this point is can be said that the majority of the fans would have been aggrieved as it was certainly the capitulating spurs of the past that we had seen, rather than the world beaters of Wigan fame.

Then came the penalty which as we all know now was missed by Defoe. I was one of the people who knew before it was taken in some kind of weird voodoo moment; and later questioned why someone who has such a strange record with spot-kicks would have been chosen to take it especially considering Tim Howard’s pedigree in relation to stopping them. It’s fair to say that should Defoe have scored, the confidence given to him through doing so would have given him more than enough rocket fuel for Wolves next week, so discussion on this is a bit of a moot point to be honest.

Wilson seemed to have done some damage in winning the penalty for us; but the good news is that he seemed to have gone to hospital as a precaution rather than an inevitability, and may be in contention for next week’s game against Wolves.

The point that is something we should take to heart is that if we were to look at our ranking now and discuss whether we would be happy with it at the start of the season, I’m not sure that we’d find a single fan who would be as unsettled as we are now, at least not in jest anyway. It just goes to show that we’re a supportership that’s reflecting the transition that the club is in too. With the fixtures we have coming up, (the Manchester City game the main issue in hand until around February), we should really be looking to take the issue now by the scruff of it’s neck and move onwards, as we’re looking at a tricky triple header of Chelsea, United and Arsenal in the later months of the league, three games that will really test our credentials.