London: Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a late equaliser for Tottenham to secure a 2-2 draw with Everton in the Premier League on Sunday. Sigurdsson was first to the ball in the 87th minute after Emmanuel Adebayor's curling shot hit the post.
Earlier, Adebayor put Tottenham ahead in the first minute of the match, stretching out his foot to connect with a fast-paced cross from Jan Vertonghen and put the ball past Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard. Everton equalised through Phil Jagielka in the 15th with a steeply angled header, and Kevin Mirallas scored a superb solo goal in the 53rd after waltzing through the Tottenham defense to put Everton ahead at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham slipped from third to fourth place with 58 points, behind Chelsea on goal difference. Arsenal are fifth with 56. Despite finding the net twice, Tottenham lacked creativity going forward and badly missed the scoring talents of the injured Gareth Bale and the creative moves of Aaron Lennon. Adebayor's opening goal came after just 35 seconds and was the second quickest goal of the season.
Michael Dawson almost gifted Everton a 10th-minute equalizer when he passed the ball straight to Leon Osman 15 yards out, but he curled high and wide. Dawson then cut out Victor Anichebe's cross as a row of Everton attackers lined up to convert, but unfortunately for the Tottenham captain, his defensive colleague Vertonghen let him down from the resulting corner.
The Belgian lost Jagielka at the back post and he nodded Leighton Baines' cross into the bottom corner. Everton sounded an early warning just after the restart when Darron Gibson struck a curling shot just wide, and with 52 minutes on the clock, they were ahead. Mirallas drifted in from the right flank and easily went past Scott Parker and Steven Caulker before slotting the ball beyond Hugo Lloris.
Spurs went straight on the attack and almost scored an equaliser through Mousa Dembele, whose 20-yard shot ricocheted off John Heitinga's foot and Howard's arm on to the bar. Heitinga almost sealed the win at the other end soon after but Dawson put in a crunching goal-saving tackle to deny the Dutchman.
Howard punched a 25-yard effort from Caulker away on the hour as Spurs continued to resort to long shots on goal. Clint Dempsey went down in the box and earned a yellow card for diving. Spurs' hopes of an equaliser looked to have faded but with three minutes left Adebayor's shot came back off the post and Sigurdsson converted.
Anichebe had a chance to steal the game for Everton in injury time after he raced through following a mistake by Dawson, but Lloris pulled off a crucial save. Everton are sixth with 52 points.
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