Tottenham 5 Everton 0: Harry Kane breaks Thierry Henry Premier League goal record as Spurs heap misery on Frank Lampard
IT must have felt just like old times for Dele Alli as he sat on the bench at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium watching his team lose again.
Only last night he was in the away dugout as his old pals ruined his return to N17.
Everton were already 5-0 down when Dele was sent on for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to rapturous applause in the 69th minute.
But first-half strikes from Son Heung-min and Harry Kane on the back of Michael Keane’s early own-goal opener meant this as a contest was over long before half time.
And how the Tottenham fans loved it as they taunted Everton boss and former Chelsea foe Frank Lampard with chants of: “Lampard, Lampard, what’s the score?”
And then the best of the lot: “You’re just a s**t Steven Gerrard.”
The only surprise was the 3,000 travelling Toffees fans did not join in.
Having booed their boys off at the break, some of those headed for the exit when Sergio Reguilon made it 4-0 within a minute of the restart.
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This heavy defeat leaves Everton and Lampard in real trouble just one place outside the drop zone as they now have a worse goal difference than Burnley, one place below them.
The Toffees have the worst away record in the division, having picked up just six points on the road this term.
Lampard has now lost all of his three away matches in charge.
No such problems for Tottenham boss Antonio Conte, who hot and cold were simply scorching as they moved to within three points of fourth-placed Arsenal, albeit having played a game more.
The same could not be said of the weather.
But as the temperature dropped towards freezing at kick-off, Everton’s Donny van de Beek must have been feeling toasty as he took off his vest from under his short-sleeved shirt and handed it to a team-mate to give to the kitman.
These two sides drew 0-0 at Goodison Park in Conte’s first game in charge in November – when Everton sub Mason Holgate received a 90th minute straight red card for a crude lunge on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg after having been on the pitch for just eight minutes.
The defender, who started last night as Lampard made six changes to the visitors’ starting line up from their 2-0 win over Boreham Wood in the FA Cup on Thursday, was lucky not to get a third-minute booking for leaving his foot in on Kane on the halfway line.
The England captain and Son broke the record for the most Prem goal combinations when he set up the South Korean to complete their 4-0 rout at Leeds in their last League fixture.
And they should have added another when Kane played his pal through in the 12th minute – but some rare hesitancy from Son allowed Anthony Gordon to deny him with a fine tackle.
But Son soon sharpened up to have a hand in Spurs’ opener two minutes later as his pass down the left played in Ryan Sessegnon, whose cross to the near post was volleyed into his own net by Toffees defender Keane under pressure from Kane.
Son made it 2-0 in the 17th minute with a drilled finish from Dejan Kulusevski’s pass.
Son has been involved in 11 goals – seven goals and four assists – in his last 12 Premier League games.
And Son should have added another after being put through by Matt Doherty – but his shot was blocked by Everton keeper Jordan Pickford, celebrating his 28th birthday and 200th top-flight appearance, with Kane firing the rebound wide.
But after Cristian Romero had tried to cut Richarlison off at the knee, the Three Lions captain made no mistake when he slotted home the third goal in the 37th minute following another fine ball by Doherty, who after a sticky start to his Spurs career, is now thriving under Conte.
Everton’s frustration boiled over at the half-time whistle when midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure had to be pulled away from confronting Hojbjerg.
Conte replaced Sessegnon with Reguilson during the interval and the Spaniard made it 4-0 with his first touch when he smashed home Kulusevski’s cross 43 seconds after the restart.
Kane hit the fifth with a fine volley from Doherty’s 55th-minute cross.
The best Everton could muster was a Dominic Calvert-Lewin shot across the face of goal.
And there was a lovely moment when the whole stadium rose to applaud the introduction of Everton’s Ukrainian substitute Vitalli Mykolenko for Calvert-Lewin.
Dele’s appearance for the last 21 minutes or so had little impact.
It was his first Prem appearance here since he started for Spurs in their 2-2 draw with Liverpool on December 19.
Conte had insisted at his pre-match Press conference that he was not worried about the fallen star returning to haunt him because the players he gets rid off usually “went down, not up”.
Dele will be hoping it is not down to the Championship.
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