Today I'm going back four years to 2018 and Tottenham's home Premier League game against Sam Allardyce's Everton played at Wembley Stadium in front of 76,251 spectators.
I guess that it's pretty apparent that today's programme cover star is Victor Wanyama. Wanyama was a Kenyan international (how many others can you name?) who made his debut for Kenya aged just 15 (surely some kind of record?) and went on to make 64 appearances scoring six goals before his international retirement. He played for Celtic and Southampton before joining Tottenham. I always liked to see him on the pitch as he was a monster of a man, a huge unit who would surely strike fear into the hearts of opposition players who had to try to win the ball off him. Wanyama came off the bench in this game against Everton to help close out the game in the final quarter of an hour. He managed 97 appearances for Spurs, scoring seven goals, before being transferred to Thierry Henri's MLS side Montreal in 2020.
Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs were in front after 26 minutes with a simple tap in goal for Heung-Min Son from a Serge Aurier cross/shot. Just after halftime Son, or Sonny as he is known to the Tottenham supporters, was heavily involved in the second goal too with a run from the halfway line ending in another cross/shot that was touched home this time by Harry Kane to equal Teddy Sheringham's Premier League scoring record for Spurs. Kane wasn't content to share the record with Sheringham for very long however; only a further twelve minutes had elapsed when he touched home his 98th Premier League goal and Tottenham's third. It was Kane's 28th goal in 28 club appearances that season and Kane's 98 Premier League goals had come in just 135 games. The final goal of the afternoon was rifled home past Pickford by Christian Eriksen following a clever backheeled flick by Dele Alli to make the score Tottenham 4 Everton 0. It was Tottenham's biggest margin of victory against an Everton side since 1958 who failed to record a shot on target throughout the entire game. The Toffees had been truly chewed up (see what I did there?)!
Season 2017/18 was a relatively successful one for Spurs and they finished third in the Premier League thereby qualifying for the following season's Champions League. Everton, who had sacked previous manager Ronald Koeman in October and appointed Allardyce in his place, didn't do too badly either finishing eighth, just outside of the European qualification places. Allardyce's brand of football didn't appeal much to the Evertonians however and he left the club at the end of the season. Sometimes nicknamed "The School of Science", Everton would experiment with more adventurous managers and tactics but have not since bettered Allardyce's eighth place in 2018.
CRB Match No. 2196
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