Van de Ven sparks Spurs attack from centre-back

Harry Kane and Jimmy Greaves, Gary Lineker and Gareth Bale, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle, Jurgen Klinsmann and Paul Gascoigne.

- RICHARD JOLLYAT

And now Micky van de Ven. The list of Tottenham's top scorers in seasons is distinguished indeed but there is an anomaly at the moment, a Dutch defender in the territory previously occupied by Teddy Sheringham, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Clive Allen, Martin Chivers, Bobby Smith and Heung-Min Son.

Van de Ven may be an intrepid interloper in the scoring charts, but he was also a fearless traveller: to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, as Tottenham became the first visitors to win, and to the Everton penalty box to score twice. The Dutchman surprised even himself. "It's crazy, I never score two goals in one game," he said. "It always goes through your head that I might get a hat-trick." That may not be a phrase he has uttered before his brace, along with a Pape Matar Sarr clincher, earned a victory that made the Hill Dickinson look less like a fortress by the Mersey and Tottenham more like a Thomas Frank team.