Tottenham v Everton: Premier League – live!

48 min Sissoko fouls Richardson, who lost him with a lovely dummy, and is booked.

47 min “I don’t understand that photo captioned ‘Lloris and Son’,” says Mac Millings. “Surely Hugo’s too young to have a kid playing top-flight football.”

You’ve been watching Father Ted again, haven’t you.

46 min Peep peep! Spurs begin the second half. Everton have brought on the teenager Anthony Gordon for the anonymous Alex Iwobi.

Breaking news: two grown men have made up after a brief altercation

Lloris and Son had a wee embrace in the tunnel on the way out.

“Did you see what happened with Son and Lloris?” says Chris Ioannou. “They were at each other’s throats as they walked off at half-time.”

I’ve just seen it now – Lloris, in particular, was fuming and looked like he was quite close to throwing hands. I think it was down to Son not tracking back in the build-up to that Richarlison shot that went just wide.

“Rob,” says Ian Copestake. ““I think it is pretty clear that, like Klopp at Liverpool, Carlo Ancelotti has taken Everton as far as he can.”

Half-time chit-chat

“The problem with 4-4-2, of course, is that you need the two to offer out balls for an outnumbered midfield,” says Gary Naylor. “Richarlison looks short of fitness, too static, neither pressing nor playing the auxiliary target man. Don Carlo needs to do something. or this will get comfortable for Tottenham.”

Peep peep! Spurs lead through Michael Keane’s unfortunate own goal. It hasn’t been a classic.

45+5 min Richarlison almost equalises out of nothing. He received the ball on the half turn, pushed it forward to the edge of the area and crumped a shot that bounced this far wide of the far post. That was a really good effort.

45+4 min “I like Pickford’s shot-stopping skills and enjoy watching him play,” writes

Divock Or-
Peter Oh. “Sometimes, however, his enthusiasm seems to boil over a little. When he gets into that zone he reminds me of a cat repeatedly pouncing on a ball of yarn. Speedy and mostly effective, but all over the place.”

45+3 min This hasn’t been a great half of football. It has looked like a match between two mid-table teams.

44 min “Football is really changing,” says Rotimi Styles Obisesan. “Many years ago, who could have predicted The Almighty Jose and Great Carlo would be managing Spurs and Everton respectively? (No disrespect to both clubs though.) Just thinking.”

43 min Lo Celso’s inswinging corner goes through the hands of Pickford, who is relieved to see it drift wide of the post.

43 min Kane, such an underrated passer, slides a nice ball across the field to Lucas Moura on the edge of the area. His first touch takes him past Digne, who recovers excellently to block Moura’s cross.

41 min The second corner is headed away to the edge of the D, where Andre Gomes slaps the bouncing ball miles wide.

40 min Now a corner to Everton on the left. Sigurdsson’s deep inswinger is headed back across goal by Calvert-Lewin and shovelled behind for another corner by Lloris.

38 min Son’s corner leads to another, this time on the right wing. Mina heads it away.

37 min Kane’s free-kick hits the top of the wall and goes behind for a corner.

36 min Holgate tried to continue but he can’t; Yerry Mina replaces him. Meanwhile, Andre Gomes has fouled Son 25 yards from goal, and Harry Kane is over the ball.

33 min “Pickford’s penchant for unnecessary diving is something that needs to be discussed in greater depth,” says Stephen Carr.

Ha, yes, he doesn’t exactly radiate calm. When it comes to temperament of goalkeepers, I think I’d definitely prefer a Seaman type to a Schmeichel.

31 min It looks like Holgate injured himself when he fouled Lo Celso. He’s receiving treatment.

30 min Dier clips the resulting free-kick onto the roof of the net. It was a good effort, with Pickford leaping desperately across goal in an attempt to make the save.

29 min Holgate is booked for cleaning out Lo Celso on the edge of the area.

It wasn’t much of a goal, though Spurs won’t mind that. Son and Kane both had efforts blocked, and then Lo Celso’s shot on the turn took a huge deflection off Keane and wrongfooted Pickford. The original shot was going well wide, so that will go down as an own goal.

22 min “Not seen too much so far but genuinely think Calvert Lewin has something about him,” says Tom Collins. “Such a hustler, intelligent user of the ball, great aerially (tips from big Dunc). As and when Ighalo goes Utd could do a lot worse in an area that will require competition. Offers qualities the rest lack. Fits the Ole bill more than Jiminez as well.”

Yes, I like him too. His attitude is great and he’s improved a lot in the last 18 months. That said, I’m not sure how much better he will get. I doubt there’s any chance of Everton selling him anyway.

21 min Lucas Moura rouses the game from its slumber with an explosive low drive from 25 yards that whistles just past the far post. That was a fine effort.

18 min “Spurs,” says Stephen Carr, “are possibly better off playing behind closed doors at the moment…”

17 min Spurs’ problems this season have generally been away from home, so they should go into games like this expecting to win. But they have made a pretty tentative start tonight.

13 min “When Jose first came to England, they said he looked like Clooney,” says Digvijay Yadav. “That was a compliment to Clooney. So much charisma, oodles of charm, tactical nous. You name it, he had it. Look at him now.”

I have a vague theory that he changed indelibly because of three things at the start of the last decade: the politics of the Real Madrid dressing-room, the mental energy it took to compete with possibly the greatest club team of all time and the disappointment/humiliation of not getting the Man Utd job in 2013.

10 min Nothing much is happening at the moment. There’s been some decent passing but it’s all a bit too slow.

4 min “Jeez, what a ringing pre-game vote of faith that is from Jose for his players. Chelsea players used to say that they’d happily run through a wall for their coach,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Spurs players are probably desperately trying to tunnel their way out onto the Tottenham High Road these days.”

3 min Lo Celso’s free-kick goes behind off the head of Digne for a corner. Son’s near-post delivery is headed away.

The players are out on the field. It’s a fine and dry evening with cloud slowly breaking. Winds will become light and accompanied by long clear spells overnight, giving a chilly feel around dawn, particularly in rural areas. Minimum temperature 8 °C.

Pre-match mood music

[Jose, you’ve made two changes, is that a reaction to the Sheffield United defeat?]

“No. If I was going to change players because of the match against Sheffield United, I would change 11 players.”

“Though Everton have not won at Tottenham since November 2008, a victory today would vault them into ninth, with games against Wolves and Sheffield United among their remaining five,” says Matt Burtz. “The possibilities are enticing!”

An email! “It really shows how elite the Premier League has become,” says Eoin Doherty, “when a match between Spurs and Everton pits Mourinho vs Ancelotti.”

Or £15m a year vs £11.5m a year, if you’re into the whole remuneration thing.

Pre-match reading (and listening)

Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1) Lloris; Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Winks, Sissoko; Lucas Moura, Lo Celso, Son; Kane.
Substitutes: Gazzaniga, Vertonghen, Sanchez, Lamela, Ndombele, Fernandes, Skipp, Cirkin, Bergwijn.

Everton (4-4-2) Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Holgate, Digne; Iwobi, Davies, Andre Gomes, Sigurdsson; Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison.
Substitutes: Stekelenburg, Baines, Mina, Sidibe, Branthwaite, Baningime, Bernard, Kean, Gordon.

Referee Graham Scott.

Hello. The marriage of convenience between Jose Mourinho and Daniel Levy always felt like a big gamble, and it might not be long before both parties are scrutinising the small print of the prenup. Spurs are on course for their lowest finish in over a decade, Harry Kane’s future is subject of constant speculation and, most worryingly of all, Mourinho already has his third-season face on.

Nothing would be more entertaining than Mourinho winning the Premier and/or Champions League with Spurs, before celebrating with a never-ending V-sign to the entire world, but it’s becoming increasingly hard to see that happening. We all know you need to be careful when discussing win percentage as Spurs manager, but so far Mourinho’s is a modest 41 per cent. That puts him below, among others, Tim Sherwood (2013-14), Doug Livermore (1992-93) and The Directors (1908-13). It’s also the lowest of his career.

Sunday’s North London derby looms large, even more so after Arsenal bantered Spurs off with Twithousery, and Spurs could really do with a result or two going into that match. They visit Bournemouth on Thursday, and tonight they host an Everton side that is making decent progress under Carlo Ancelotti.

Only Liverpool, Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs have collected more points since Ancelotti took over, and they’ve each played a game more in that time. All in all, Everton have had a pretty good new manager bounce. At Spurs, it’s been closer to a new manager flounce.

Kick off 8pm.