Alli’s volley earns Tottenham 1-1 draw at Everton

82′ CLOSE! Funes Mori heads just wide and Lloris was stranded.

Pochettino greater concern as half-time approached was how his side could possibly be behind, but as the fourth official signalled two additional minutes Alli struck the game’s second memorable goal. Leighton Baines took the ball off Christian Eriksen before Tom Cleverley sent a long ball forward for Romelu Lukaku.

Everton fans could be forgiven for feeling a little confused by their team at the start of 2016.

The leveller that was the least Spurs deserved duly arrived in the final moments of the half, and was another finely-crafted effort involving an excellent long-distance pass. “We were unlucky, we could have scored twice and were then unlucky to go behind, but showed a lot of character to come back”.

Lukaku burst through in the dying seconds but put his shot into the stand, before Ross Barkley’s shot was saved by Lloris.

Only one of Tottenham’s defeats has come since the opening day of the season, and they have responded to that surprise loss at home to Newcastle United with three consecutive victories – one more will give them four on the bounce for the first time in two years.

Nineteen-year-old midfielder Alli produced another impressive individual display, providing yet more evidence he really is a major rising star.

The sight of John Stones gesturing to Everton fans gathered at the Park End to calm down demonstrated the youngster’s confidence.

Tottenham, now six points behind league leaders Arsenal in fourth place, were being talked up pre-match as possible title contenders.

Pochettino described Alli’s latest strike as “fantastic”, before telling a news conference: “From the beginning we have had to take care with him”.

“The next nine, 10 games will maybe mark the possibility of how we can finish in the table”.

“We definitely feel we could have won”, he said. Without this mutual trust and respect between the managers and players, the results would suffer as the players would not feel they were in an environment to flourish.

‘We kept that defensive intensity and got on the ball more and in the last half an hour we were one decision or one touch away from getting a winning goal.

“The only way we cannot achieve all that we can in football is if we stop working hard”.

Everton manager Martinez said: “We have been a bit lightweight in the way we have defended our box and I thought today was an incredible change. Now I expect him to be in the England squad, I actually think now he’s in the team”, Carragher told Sky Sports.

The woodwork was no friend to Spurs as Ben Davies saw another spectacular effort from distance rattle the crossbar on 30 minutes, by which time the visitors’ were chasing an equaliser. Tottenham are an outside bet for the title, I’ve been singing their praises for the last few weeks as Spurs have delivered time and again, four wins in their last five which has left them just seven points off top. We believe in the way we play.