Son Heung-min scored twice after Yves Bissouma had climbed off the naughty step to fire Tottenham on their way to a thumping 4-0 victory over Everton.
Bissouma put himself back in Ange Postecoglou’s good books after the Spurs boss likened him to a naughty child who was now behaving himself, having been suspended for one match by the club for taking laughing gas.
Restored to the starting line-up, the Mali international instantly repaid Postecoglou’s faith with a stunning 20-yard strike to open the scoring.
It was Bissouma’s first Spurs goal, in his 57th match for the club, and he marked it with a contrite celebration before running up to the touchline to hug his manager.
Jordan Pickford then blotted his copybook when his dreadful error allowed Son to double Tottenham’s lead.
Cristian Romero headed a third and Son struck again late on to leave Everton slipping towards full crisis-club mode just two games into the season.
In a frenetic start Pickford had actually made three top-class saves before undoing all of his good work.
First, he made a point-blank stop to deny Romero after the visitors failed to clear a corner, and moments later the England goalkeeper was at full stretch to tip Son’s deflected strike wide.
It's only right he scored on his 100th Spurs appearance 😏 pic.twitter.com/tfn2558bm2
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 24, 2024
Pickford was then out quickly to block James Maddison after he latched on to Romero’s ball over the top.
But a goal was coming, and it arrived in the 15th minute when Dejan Kulusevski skipped past a couple of challenges in the area and laid the ball off to Bissouma.
The 27-year-old let rip with a fierce, first-time drive which crashed off the underside of the crossbar and into Pickford’s net.
Pickford could do nothing about that, but he held his hands up for the mistake which gifted Tottenham their second.
James Tarkowski played the ball square to his keeper from a throw-in but as Pickford tried to switch feet, he took a poor touch allowing Son to nick the ball and tap into an empty net.
Just half an hour into their second game and Everton, on the end of a chastening 3-0 home defeat by Brighton on the opening weekend, were in utter disarray.
Substitute Jesper Lundstrom had their best chance of getting back into the game with an angled drive, beaten away by Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario.
But the Toffees were condemned to start a third straight season with back-to-back defeats after Romero headed in Maddison’s corner and Son drove home the fourth to leave them still without a win on the road in 2024.
