Tottenham Hotspur were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Everton, extending their winless and goalless start to the Premier League season to four matches for the first time in 20 years. Everton, unbeaten under their new setup, picked up their third straight draw, climbing to seventh in the table while Spurs slipped to 17th.
Some scorelines tell you everything before you even watch the match. Tottenham 0, Everton 0 is one of them — and for a Spurs side that spent big over the summer, it’s becoming an uncomfortably familiar one.
A Fast Start That Went Nowhere
Spurs came flying out of the gate, generating four shots in the opening ten minutes alone. Their best chance arrived before the five-minute mark, when Andy Robertson — the former Liverpool man now on the other side of a fierce rivalry, and greeted with a distinctly cold reception from the away fans — curled an inch-perfect free kick onto the head of Jan Paul van Hecke at the back post. Van Hecke had the goal at his mercy. He blazed the chance over the bar.
It was, in hindsight, as good as it got. That fifth-minute sequence ended up standing as Tottenham’s best opportunity of the entire afternoon, and Roberto De Zerbi’s expensively rebuilt side never found another one to match it.
A Drab Middle, a Late Flicker
After the early flurry, the match settled into exactly the kind of non-event neither fanbase paid for. Robertson and Sandro Tonali both had half-chances before the break, but nothing came of either. No shot on target arrived from either side until stoppage time at the end of the first half, when James Garner’s free kick forced Tottenham goalkeeper Antonín Kinský into a save, turning it around the post.
The second half offered little improvement. Everton’s Brennan Johnson — another familiar face to the home fans, having previously played for Spurs — blazed a good chance well off target, while at the other end, Kinský nearly handed Everton the lead with a loose moment that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall couldn’t quite punish. Spurs’ one shot on target of the entire second half came from Mateus Fernandes, a tame effort that drew sarcastic cheers from a home crowd who’d seen enough. By full time, Tottenham had managed just 0.64 expected goals across the whole match and were booed off the pitch — the second time in as many weeks, following a similarly blank display in a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest.
The Numbers Behind the Frustration
This is now the first time in 20 years that a Tottenham side has gone four Premier League matches to start a season without scoring — and it’s been more than 400 minutes since Spurs last found the net in the league. For a club that spent heavily over the summer to reshape the squad under De Zerbi, the drought is becoming the story of the season so far.
Everton, by contrast, will take the point happily. It’s their third straight league draw, and while they didn’t manage to turn their better moments into their first away win since February, the result keeps their unbeaten run intact.
Where It Leaves Both Sides
The shared point did little to help Tottenham’s position — they dropped to 17th in the table, edging closer to the relegation zone they’ll be desperate to stay clear of. Everton, meanwhile, climbed to seventh, a solid platform to build on if they can start converting draws into wins.
Sunday brings the weekend’s headline fixture, as Manchester United host local rivals Manchester City.
