From my seat: Spurs (H)

I share your thoughts and summary in the penultimate paragraph.

I suppose my elated feeling at the final whistle was more down to the expectation of a thrashing based on the first half performance...or lack thereof!

However, I note there have been qute a few comments on this site regarding the GBP200million plus Tottenham has spent on bolstering their team this season versus the miserly spend that our illustrious board/shareholders has mustered in support of our challenge.

It would be nice if they could proportionately spend what we do as fans, but there you go.

Anyway, it is apparent that big spending doesn't necessarily equate to success, nor does it reflect the actual ability of the players who actually cost bucket-loads of money.

I concede that Man City has spent a fortune but seem to have acquired genuine top class players. Not so sure about Tottenham having seen them play a few times this season.

Haven't got a major point to make here other than outside the top 3 or 4 teams, good management, the right blend of players/skill sets, good coaching and a positive approach and great team spirit will put you right up there.

What I see so far from Everton puts us right up there, in spite of the misers controlling the purse strings!

COYBs

It was indeed hard to see what Barry was doing from TV, not that he did much wrong or went missing, but he was it seems stemming the flow. Not surprised to see him MOTM though as by most accounts almost everyone else had multiple moments of dodginess.

I would have taken a point before the game, begged you for one at half time, and yet remained disappointed with the point we got after the second half revival. All in all a microcosm of life as a blue :-).

Jelavic still useless though.

I would replace Osman, Pienaar and Mirallas for Ross, Deulofeu and Naismith. Deulofeu was impressive when he came on and showed a willingness to track back which even Moyes would have been proud of!

Ken, I too noticed their left centre back - Chiriches - he was really, really impressive. He shackled Lukaku, Mirallas and Coleman effectively. He would have been a good replacement for Distin….

All in all it was a very good, hard game between two good sides.

Second half Pienaar did well to hold onto the ball with some nice twists and turns, some of the passing however was wayward.

Mirallas for me was our weakest link yesterday, he really never got into it.

All in all a decent if uninspiring point. 7th after 10 games with the first three results being the most damaging maybe.

I am enjoying Martinez and his style and philosophy though it does seem that far from being the expected attacking revolution we are actually creating less chances and scoring less goals than this time last year despite having a proper striker. Perhaps with time we will be able to translate our improved possession into more goal opportunities though at the moment we seem most incisive when adopting a more direct approach.

The only thing that really worried me yesterday was the lack of movement off the ball, thus restricting the number of passes available and forcing some really poor decisions. One passage of play really stood out for me to sum it up. Osman received the ball and passed it to Barry, who played it straight back. Three Spurs players started to converge on Ossie so he played it to the only open player ahead of him McCarthy, who played it straight back. The three Spurs players where now closer to Ossie and another was closing on McCarthy so Ossie turned and played it back to Jags, and what did he do? He played it straight back. The Spurs players where now on top of of Ossie and he inevitably lost the ball. The worrying thing was, on each occassion Ossie was the only Everton player who showed himself for the pass.

We rode the tide in the 1st half and came into the game as they tired. I remember thinking that our substitutions where spot on again, no dilly dallying.

2nd place this morning would have been great but a draw was what we deserved.

On the two penalty decisions, without a partisan bias, theirs was crap and ours was nailed on... LOL

They are a very strong football team with arguably some of the finest athletes in the Premier League, for they are a better team than Liverpool. If AVB played the lethal Defoe ahead of 'elbows' Soldado then they probably would score more goals.

In the first half, we showed them too much respect and never pressed them high enough up the pitch, too willing to sit and let them dicate, maybe understandable given that we knew the searing pace they possessed on both blanks with Lennon, Townsend and Walker at full back.

The big let down for me this season has to be Kev Mirallas. I just don't know what has happened to the lad's form, I have been saying this for weeks now but he is doing nothing to make me change my tune. Yesterday again the match passed him by, he looks half-hearted at times and we knew last season that consistency was a issue with him, but at least last season he was having a big impact going forward; so far this season he just doesn't seem to want to run at defenders. I thought his best form was the second half of last season when he was our best attacking player, I had high hopes of him carrying it on to this season.

Well at least it keeps up the unbeaten home record; we really need to take three points of a woeful Crystal Palace team next week. I believe Palace are already planning on next year in the Championship and their main aim was just getting the money prize from promotion. We must beat them next week, then the Derby obviously takes care of itself.

I agree that RM needs to send a message to Mirallas and sit him on the bench. His work rate was terrible and his attitude towards the game was very disappointing. For all of Ossie's and Pienaar's negatives yesterday, at least they didn't try to hide. Hate to say it but Osman needs to move into the super sub role the rest of the way.

Barkley is a must start next week and I wouldn't mind seeing Deulofeu and Naismith come in for Pienaar and Mirallas.

We need to get Kone fit again as Jelavic's cameo yesterday was scary... I'm sure his mask was the number selling mask in Croatia this Halloween...

Thanks for another great report Ken. I'm sure Barry's performance could have only been appreciated by those in attendance as the TV coverage didn't do him a lot of justice.

For Everton to play a defensive game when needed shows we can adapt and change to the situation; this bodes well for big games. I wanted to see KM go in the middle and use his pace against the central defenders. He has the ability; I'm sure he will come good.

One of the things that is noticable that, despite what many supporters worried about, and that was how many goals Wigan conceded under Mr Martinez, Everton's defence still remains strong with just nervy moments when tippy-tapping.

As we all know, in the modern game money talks so hopefully in the January sales BK backs the team for the purchase of a quality midfielder to provide more opportunities for our forewards.

What pissed me off about the ref was his inconsistency in booking Howard and Mirallas for dissent and allowing Townsend and Vertonghen to give it the arm waving and verbals without sanction.

And watching the game on TV with David Pleat giving his analysis almost totally from the Tottenham perspective was a double whammy. Mr Pleat unsurprisingly thought Lukaku deserved the yellow...which sort of said a lot about where he was coming from. Fair report Mr B. Thanks.

Judging for a couple of penalty calls against us in recent weeks, you certainly don't have to commit murder to get a penalty for some refs. In fairness, though, Spurs seemed to have as good a shout for a penalty as we did (from what I could see on TV). So, I don't think we can argue too much about that call.

I have to say also that, although I love Seamus, he really needs to be a bit more "savy" on the penalty calls. He gave away those two soft penalties recently and could well have given another one away on Sunday. In all 3 cases, apart from poor positioning (wrong side of the attacker), he compounded the issue by lunging in and giving the ref an opportunity to give a penalty.

Also, the attacker will make a meal of it. For his own penalty claim, he probably should have gone down straight away rather than trying to minimise the contact.

Likewise Lukaku needs the right ball and close support as it's no good him winning aerial duels if no-one picks up the loose ball. I would definitely give Barkley a start against Palace but leave Del Boy on the bench and have him come on in the 2nd half. Pienaar must stay on in front of Baines to work on the combination they had before Pienaar's injury.

In retrospect, a draw was a fair result and both defences nullified each other's attack. We cannot start so slowly against good teams though and must be up for the derby match from the beginning.

On the situation with the referee, Mr Friend, I honestly believe that at half time he would have been told by his assistants or fourth official that Spurs should have had a penalty and that, ironicaly, when the same two players clashed, there was no way he was going to give it, unless it was completely clear cut. What I suppose we should be heartened by, difficult though it maybe, is Coleman's honesty in playing on when he was so obviosly fouled.

What is heartening for me, and augurs well for the future, is that our manager responded well to our poor first half performance by demanding, and getting, a far better display after the interval and also, with timely substitutions especially the boy Barkley who seemed rejuvanated after a (hopefully) temporary loss of form.

Nice of you to mention Ken, that your thoughts are also with a certain Bus Driver in the tragic event that resulted in the unbelievably sad loss of 10 year old James. As a Bus Driver of 44 years who has counselled colleagues in similar tragic circumstances your comments are certainly timely and appropriate.

He really surprised me by saying it would have been very harsh to have had a penalty given when he tumbled with Seamus in close attendance (to say that Seamus lunged in is unfair, and the player was only beyond him due to a slip and good interplay by the Spurs players), rather than claiming it as a stonewall penalty.

Just kind of sheepishly shrugged off the challenge he made on Seamus in the second half as well.

Empathy for a fellow defender perhaps?

The truth is it wasn't a card of any description, just as Howard's and McCarthy's were never bookings either. He was undoubtedly the poorest and most biased ref we have seen since Clattenberg.

Incidently, Lescott is actually a better defender than either of the two Man City centre backs who were really lackadaisical. They are really missing Kompany at the back to marshal that defence as it is letting their attack down and may well cost them a trophy this season if not corrected. Our side does not have the pass and move class of city nor does it have individual ball control like they do. We still get results by effort rather than brilliance. If Martinez could get our players to move into space and be available for a pass we would not struggle so much and I am certain we would make more chances.

Watching Toure, Silva and Nasri, it's obvious that they are really good on the ball, but they make simple passes and move instantly into space to receive the ball and move forward. There is a real objective in their play and should be what every top flight player is aiming for. The Man City defence on the other hand is not as good as ours at defending.

I wish we had someone like Nasri or Silva to do the prompting for Lukaku and bring the best out of Baines, Coleman and Mirallas. Aguero at the moment is better than Van Persie, he works harder and dribbles far better than any striker I have seen in the Premier League. His 2nd goal was pure invention and we have not had a ball player like him since Young, Collins and Vernon. I played football to a decent level but would gladly pay to watch that Man City attack anytime. It's a pity that all their best players are foreign.