Credit: Imago

James Barker

Sun 24 May 2026 19:10, UK Updated Sun 24 May 2026 19:26, UK

David Moyes and Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi were involved in a touchline argument, as Everton ended their 2025-26 season in defeat.

It’s probably safe to say that many Premier League supporters across the land will be cursing Everton on Sunday.

With West Ham running out 3-0 winners over Leeds United, the Toffees only needed to beat Tottenham and that would’ve sent Spurs crashing down to the Championship.

However, Joao Palhinha’s first-half goal was enough to hand Spurs a 1-0 victory, as Moyes’ men ended their campaign with seven games without a league win.

Goodison News shines a light on three things you may have missed from Everton’s final day loss to Tottenham.

David Moyes and Roberto De Zerbi clash on the touchline

Tottenham’s bench were animated against Everton, and understandably so given their Premier League status was on the line.

De Zerbi is a passionate character who doesn’t hide his emotions, and Moyes isn’t one to back down from a challenge or afraid to speak his mind either.

As captured in a video from Tottenham reporter Chris Cowlin via his X account, an incident involving both dug outs involving both managers and players occurred during the first half.

De Zerbi can be seen shouting and pointing towards Moyes, whilst also putting his finger on his lips, indicating he believed the Everton boss should quieten down.

Moyes is then seen waving his arm towards De Zerbi in a ‘go away’ sort of manner, before we see other members of Spurs’ coaching staff and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario starting to shout and get involved too.

Vicario, probably unwisely, then begins pointing and gesturing for Seamus Coleman to come towards him so he can better tell him what he thinks of whatever it was that had him losing his cool, to which the departing Toffees legend obliged.

Coleman then also does the classic shushing gesture to the Tottenham bench, before Vicario is given sound advice by members of the Spurs coaching team to sit back down, before Coleman retreats to the Everton bench.

Merlin Rohl lucky not to be shown a red card

Among a myriad of poor Everton performances on Sunday, Merlin Rohl’s was right up there among the worst.

The 23-year-old wasn’t in the game at all from an attacking standpoint, taking just 19 touches and creating zero chances before being replaced on 62 minutes.

In fact, he was lucky to have still been on the pitch after his challenge on Spurs defender Micky van de Ven just over 20 minutes into the game.

As captured in the above image via The Spurs Web on X, Rohl clearly catches Van de Ven high on his lower leg with a straight boot and with his studs up after playing the ball.

Rohl escaped this incident having not been shown any colour card whatsoever, and referee Michael Oliver awarded a free-kick to Everton.

VAR did take a look at Rohl’s challenge but didn’t deem it necessary to step in, but as the image shows, that could’ve been a very nasty one for Van de Ven indeed.

We’ve seen this sort of challenge produce numerous red cards this season, so Rohl should count himself lucky here even if it was an accidental follow through.

Potential bug in the Everton camp ahead of Tottenham

Everton’s performance against Tottenham was extremely lacklustre, but perhaps there may have been a reason for that.

Reporting live on the game for the Liverpool Echo, reporter Joe Thomas revealed prior to kick-off that a possible illness may have infiltrated the Everton squad over the past few days.

“(Nathan) Patterson appears to be the only casualty from the first team squad but understand a few in the camp may have had a bit of a bug this week. Wonder if that will have any impact as the game goes on,” Thomas wrote.

Perhaps it did, if true, and it will be interesting to see if this is something that Moyes or indeed a player confirms following the Tottenham defeat.

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