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<\/a> penalty box to score twice. The Dutchman surprised even himself. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy, I never score two goals in one game,\u201d he said. \u201cIt always goes through your head that I might get a hat-trick.\u201d 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<\/a> team.<\/p>\n A triumph built on a clean sheet and two goals from corners? It was scarcely Angeball. But then Ange Postecoglou took Tottenham to 17th in the Premier League. These are early days, but his successor\u2019s side are third. Postecoglou could seem to have disdain for set-pieces. Frank doesn\u2019t. Brentford were such dead-ball specialists their set-piece coach became Frank\u2019s replacement as manager. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Micky van de Ven, right, scores his and Tottenham\u2019s second goal (Peter Byrne\/PA)<\/p>\n And Van de Ven may be the face of this Spurs. Promoted from the ranks, he is captaining them while Cristian Romero is out. Newly prolific, he is compensating for the absence of more obvious scorers like Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison; after only finding the net seven times in his club career, he now has five goals this campaign. Whereas Postecoglou\u2019s teams were porous, Frank\u2019s Spurs have a defensive record bettered only by Arsenal. It may help, too, that Van de Ven\u2019s hamstrings are put under less stress, with Frank\u2019s defensive line set deeper than Postecoglou\u2019s.<\/p>\n There was a pragmatic feel to this, but pragmatism is no longer a dirty word for Tottenham. Their xG from open play was just 0.78, but Romero\u2019s understudy Kevin Danso amassed 18 clearances and, with his long throw, added to their set-piece armoury. \u201cWe have a clean-sheet mentality,\u201d said Frank. It may be something he has brought. \u201cThe second half was a dogfight,\u201d he added. It was earthy and gritty but Tottenham showed why they possess the Premier League\u2019s only unbeaten record on the road. They may not have an excess of creativity at home but they were solid and streetwise and that can be a fine basis.<\/p>\n \u201cSet pieces are so crucial,\u201d Frank said. \u201cRight now, Arsenal is on track for the title from set pieces.\u201d Spurs are on course for a fine season themselves, and David Moyes noted: \u201cWe don’t concede a lot from corners, and I have to praise Tottenham. Thomas Frank works a lot on it.\u201d<\/p>\n That training ground work yielded two goals. Van de Ven\u2019s first was a well-worked set piece, the centre-back running from behind the far post to the goal-line, Rodrigo Bentancur circling around to appear on the turf he vacated and meeting Mohammed Kudus\u2019 deep corner with a header across the box for the Dutchman to nod in. His second seemed simpler, Van de Ven just outjumping Jordan Pickford to head in Pedro Porro\u2019s corner. \u201cMicky again,\u201d chorused the travelling fans. \u201cAt the start of the season, I said, \u2018You are a centre-back and you need to score more,\u2019\u201d said Frank. Van de Ven responded. \u201cThe way he attacked the ball and got in there where it hurts\u201d impressed his manager.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Micky van de Ven is Tottenham\u2019s unlikely top scorer (Peter Byrne\/PA)<\/p>\n Perhaps at fault for Van de Ven\u2019s second, Pickford went on to make a fine save from his former teammate Richarlison. Everton may have been relieved a player who tended to score on his returns to Goodison Park was only a substitute. Richarlison instead recorded an assist, setting up his fellow substitute Sarr. It was the cue for the Hill Dickinson to empty.<\/p>\n Everton could reflect on two moments when it might have been different. Porro made a brilliant block on the goal-line in the third minute to thwart Jack Grealish. Everton celebrated an equaliser from another corner, Jake O\u2019Brien heading in. But replays showed Iliman Ndiaye and Grealish offside and around Guglielmo Vicario. \u201cI think it was the right decision,\u201d said an admirably honest Moyes.<\/p>\n Vicario, carrying on where he left off in Monaco, made a terrific save from James Garner and a still better one to repel Beto\u2019s overhead kick. He did well to keep out Ndiaye\u2019s deflected effort. Another shutout owed much to the goalkeeper. \u201cHe was man of the match in Monaco,\u201d said Frank. \u201cMicky was man of the match today. And we shouldn\u2019t forget Kevin Danso, who has done very well to step in.\u201d<\/p>\n So has Frank since his appointment. The good news for Tottenham is that they are third. The bad news, of course, is that Arsenal are first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-106295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Micky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d8c359e530f94c38a69f077c98617f6dY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzYxNTg5ODQx-2.82163797.jpg\")
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