Pundit Gary Neville has told Sky Sports (06/07, 21:25) that the performance of Everton playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson against Tottenham Hotspur ‘bugged’ him all night.
Everton travelled down to North London on Monday night, and were hoping to build on a strong set of results since returning to action.
However, the Toffees fell to a 1-0 defeat. Spurs claimed the winner in the first half, as Giovani Lo Celso’s strike cannoned into the net off Michael Keane.
It was a fairly dour game, with neither side really hitting top form. Carlo Ancelotti will be disappointed with a rather toothless display, and Sigurdsson will receive criticism.
The Icelandic playmaker played his way back into the side with a strong display at Norwich City, and then scored from the penalty spot against Leicester City last week.
Sigurdsson started again on Monday night, but was completely ineffectual – and notably pulled out of one challenge in the first half.
Having given the ball away again in the second period, which resulted in a chance for Son Heung-min, Neville let rip at the 30-year-old.
Neville branded Sigurdsson ‘poor’ whilst noting that the vision of him pulling out of a challenge stuck with him all night and ‘bugged’ him, seemingly finding nothing redeemable about Sigurdsson’s performance.
“He’s been poor, Sigurdsson, he really has,” said Neville. “I can’t get that challenge in the first half out of my head, where he backed out of it. It’s just stuck with me all night, it’s bugged me,” he added.
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