Jose's verdict on Everton

Jose Mourinho was pleased with the work ethic of the team as we made sure of a return to winning ways against Everton on Monday night.

Giovani Lo Celso’s shot deflected home off Michael Keane mid-way through the first half, giving us a 1-0 advantage that we diligently held onto in a tight game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Jordan Pickford was the busier of the two keepers, notably denying Heung-Min Son just after the South Korean forward had fired inches wide in the second period. All in all, we’d done enough to win.

“I feel very happy with the points because we needed them so much,” Jose told Spurs TV afterwards. “I feel very happy with the team’s reaction after such a bad performance that we had against Sheffield United. It’s not an artistic performance, not a performance of incredible talent, incredible quality, but it’s a team performance against a very good team. It’s not easy to play after bad defeats, it’s not easy to play after bad performances. Sometimes the team is not able to react, sometimes the team stays in the sadness, sometimes stays in the frustration. I think today the boys showed how committed they were to try to finish in the best possible position for us and at least to wash our faces after the bad performance we had the other day.

“Everybody gave what they could give, we had a very solid performance, we were never in trouble, we were always in control. Could we have scored more goals? Yes, we could. I think we had two great chances in the second half for that but Everton is a good team, it’s not an easy team to play against.”

The post-match statistics struggled to separate the sides with possession, shots and corners fairly even, but Jose felt we were deserved winners.

“Against Sheffield United we had much more possession than them, much more corners, much more playing in the last third and then we lost 3-1. The only thing that is easy to analyse is that Hugo didn’t make any important saves in the game against very, very good players,” he reflected. “I think Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison are two of the best strikers in the Premier League – really, really difficult – but we were totally in control.”

Finally, it was pointed out to Jose that our result against the Toffees represented his 200th Premier League win as a manager.

“I know but honestly I want victories with Tottenham,” he replied. “I don’t care about my victories with Chelsea and United, these victories are history, are past. What I want is victories with Tottenham so I prefer to know that I won one more match for Tottenham and I want to win more.”

We return to action at AFC Bournemouth on Thursday evening, kick-off 6pm.