Why Bentancur and Romero were raging in Tottenham's dugout and Daniel Levy's Christmas speech
Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham players managed to hand their supporters a Christmas gift with a spot in the top four and the Lilywhites sitting just four points off the top of the tree.
They were indebted to their goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario on more than one occasion, not least with a dramatic last-gasp save from former Spurs loanee Arnaut Danjuma in the final moments, but ultimately it was a third win in a row and another three points during a time when numerous key players are out either through injury or suspension.
One of Postecoglou's mantras is that how you react to adversity defines you and he is not one for excuses, so how his Spurs team have bounced back from a tough run of results will have pleased him.
They have shown grit with recent displays at the back, with constantly changing faces in the defence, having no Destiny Udogie through suspension on Saturday and then needing to take off Cristian Romero as a precaution with a tight right hamstring at half-time, thrusting Eric Dier into the action after a long spell out.
Postecoglou is a perfectionist so he won't have been happy with the team stepping off the gas following their second goal from captain Son Heung-min but he will accept that against a battling, aggressive side like Everton, who had won four league games in a row coming into the contest, sometimes you just have to battle to grab the result.
Even the currently injured Rodrigo Bentancur was caught up in the midst of the fight, standing up at the back of the dugout, shouting and pointing at young Everton full-back Nathan Patterson after he felt the Scot shoved a Spurs ball boy at one point in the second half, with Romero testing that hamstring by standing and adding his voice to the outrage.
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