Everton arrived with a plan in mind, and stuck to it throughout, even after they went a man down following the sending off of Kevin Kilbane. They flooded the midfield and effectively prevented any attacking outlet from Spurs before nicking the three points for themselves.
James Beattie was only on the bench as David Moyes opted for a 4-5-1 formation with Andy Johnson the lone marksmen up front. This resulted in a dull affair as nearly all the blue shirts made sure they stayed behind the ball at all times. Indeed, the red card did little to quash the visitor's spirit and half time approached without a genuine effort on goal from either side.
There was little improvement after the break either, but there was a goal conceded by Spurs who were then forced to make a change of personnel. Jermaine Jenas was switched to right back as Jermain Defoe came on to replace Young Pyo-Lee, but the change brought little effect.
Everton seemingly got stronger as the clock ticked down, and Lee Carsley was instrumental in maintaining Everton's advantage. Before long they got their noses further in front and the home supporters realised this wasn't going to be their day. Michael Dawson was pushed forward as Spurs went in desperate pursuit of rescuing something late on but it just wasn't to be.
On the first half Martin Jol said: "We more or less controlled the game in the first half, but we didn't score. After the sending-off I always knew that it could be difficult. We tried to get the ball out to Aaron Lennon but it was not easy because there was no space. The second goal was a real disappointment."
On the second half Jol added: "We played against 10 men, we didn't pin them down in their own half and we couldn't take advantage of the extra player. It was very disappointing we didn't see the difference between 10 and 11 men."
"The main opportunity they had with 10 men was to score from free-kicks and corners and that's what they did. That showed up our inexperience. We conceded and from that they got more motivation, more ambition and we didn't play like we did on Tuesday against Sheffield United.""Once they went 1-0 up, they looked a very good team, even though they were playing with 10 men. We worked hard and tried everything but we couldn't make a difference up front on this occasion. We didn't stretch them. The players were down afterwards, very disappointed but not for themselves because we lost three points but disappointed for the crowd. We couldn't do well for them this time. It just wasn't our day."
"If we'd managed to keep a clean sheet and it had stayed 0-0 it would still have been disappointing, but we would have taken a point."
Michael Dawson said: "Everton went down to 10 men early on but we couldn't break them down and they played very well."
"It's so disappointing and we're all down in the dumps again a week after we felt the same way at Bolton.
"We haven't lost many times at the Lane and to lose one so early in the season...what can I say? We're all gutted and disappointed for the fans."
Source: TottenhamHotspur.com