Everton unable to overcome nine men

Everton 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1

It is unclear what is more surprising; that Everton should be leading the Premiership or that they should have failed to overcome a Tottenham side that finished the match with nine men.

The home side had 24 minutes to finish a wounded beast but chose to squander their attacks in a series of punts on goal that lacked any pretention to accuracy. Glenn Hoddle, who returned to north London with the air of a Renaissance prince but who has instead overseen two painful draws, would have been grateful for his side's resilience under intense pressure and punched the air on the whistle.

The match was dominated by a series of refereeing decisions from David Elleray which bordered on the perverse. Gary Doherty, who was involved in a wrestling match with Kevin Campbell, was deemed to have conceded a penalty and was shown a direct red card. Duncan Ferguson converted his second spot-kick in as many games to wipe out Darren Anderton's first-half opener.

Three minutes later, Gustavo Poyet was sent off for a challenge on Steve Watson that neither manager thought merited a red card, although ironically a horrible lunge by Mauricio Taricco which sent Thomas Gravesen to hospital went unpunished.

The Dane, unquestionably Walter Smith's most effective midfielder, could be missing for more than a month with a deep cut to his leg. Elleray also disallowed a lovely volley from Niclas Alexandersson that struck the back of the net for what must have been the mildest of pushes by Campbell.

"We can take a lot from this 20 minutes of pounding," said the Tottenham manager. "There should not have been a cat in hell's chance of us having two men sent off. Gary put in a fantastic tackle; it was not even a penalty, let alone a sending off. Gus's was a lazy tackle which was a yellow card. But I told Mauricio that I was not happy with that challenge; nobody in football would have been. There is no excuse for it."

A defence marshalled by Sol Campbell would have struggled to hold a two-man deficit, especially when faced with the lurking menace of Ferguson. Ledley King, a 21-year-old from Bow, made an admirable and unflustered stopgap for Spurs to anchor their hopes to.

Everton, frankly, played far better against 11 than nine. In trying to press home their advantage, they fell into the old trap of pumping in long balls for Ferguson which King proved more than equal to.

It went entirely against type that Everton should have spent the first half demonstrating their flair while Tottenham were involved in what appeared limited to a grim holding operation. Alexandersson, who was to have a luckless night, hammered Gravesen's corner against the bar and Tottenham were unsettled by the home side's verve and movement in midfield.

Only twice did Hoddle's forwards receive the type of ball he himself used to distribute. Steffen Iversen was slipped through once by Poyet and then by Teddy Sheringham but on both occasions he aimed his shot wide.

However, two minutes from the interval a match Everton had largely dominated was turned on its head as Anderton spun on the 18-yard line, went past two defenders and found Iversen, whose shot was driven against Paul Gerrard's body. Anderton beat Alessandro Pistone to the rebound to finish off the move he had started.

The replays suggested Iversen had been offside, which just about summed up Everton's night. Only once in 18 previous matches had they beaten Tottenham in the Premiership and the jinx's grip on this fixture was not about to be released.

Everton (4-4-2): Gerrard 5; Watson 6 (Moore 4, 73), Stubbs 5, Weir 5, Pistone 4; Alexandersson 7 (Tal, 86), Gravesen 8, (Unsworth 5, 43), Gemmill 6, Pembridge 6; Campbell 4, Ferguson 5. Substitutes not used: Chadwick, Simonsen (gk).

Tottenham Hotspur (3-5-2): Sullivan 6; Doherty 3, Bunjevcevic 6, King 8, Taricco 4; Anderton 6, Freund 5, (Clemence 5, 76), Poyet 4, Ziege 5; Iversen 6, Sheringham 6. Substitutes not used: Perry, Davies, Thelwell, Keller (gk).

Referee: D Elleray (Harrow) 3.