Tottenham had the better of the opening 20 mins or so, with Ginola electric down the left, and we were slightly on the back foot. I felt that if we could keep it at 0-0 we'd have a chance. But, from a corner, a headed clearance hit one of our own players and the ball sat up nicely for Ferdinand to rifle home from 6 yards.

It got a bit sticky for 10 minutes after that but we survived. From a Hutchison cross, Bakayoko directed a neat stooping header beyond Walker and into the corner of the net just on the half hour. Unfortunately, Baka did his leg in about a minute later, or possibly as a result if his rather erratci celebratory somersault! and had to be replaced by Danny Cadamarteri.

The game evened up a bit and we should have been 2-1 up when Cleland had acres of space about 12 yards out on the right, but he screwed his shot horribly wide of the Tottenham goal.

Everton started the second half very well with Hutchison moving to the right wing for goal kicks and winning loads of headers against Sinton. This gave Barmby & Danny the chance to get at Tottenham's defence. Barmby had a cross/shot saved after about 50 minutes with us well on top.

Unfortunately we couldn't sustain the pressure and we were undone by Armstrong three times in the space of 18 minutes. First, Myhre should have intercepted the ball but he hesitated fatally, allowing Armstrong to round him and score from an acute angle. Then, two fine breakaway strikes killed us off. It was an example of quality finishing from a man who we almost signed 3 years ago.

That was pretty much it. We were well beaten by then and for the last 10 minutes we watched Tottenham take the piss out of us as our heads were down.

Ratings:

• Myhre 5 - At fault for the 2nd goal
• Dunne 6 - Better in central defence after Short's injury
• Cleland 5 - Didn't play well
• Unsworth 6 - OK
• Bilic 6 - OK
• Ball 5 - Not on form and of no effect in an attacking sense
• Hutchison 8 - Never gave up
• Collins 5 - Anonymous
• Dacourt 7 - Had a tireless game
• Bakayoko 7 - good goal but so unlucky to get injured straight after
• Barmby 7 - Busy and hard working
• Cadamarteri 7 - Lively
• Oster 6 - No time

Team 6 - Actually not as bad as Saturday against Derby County.

We really missed Materazzi and I think for the last 3 games we've missed Ferguson too. Not just for his attacking qualities but defensively on set pieces as well. Campbell had at least 4 headers on goal from corners and their first came from a corner.

To earn such praise from the Frenchman, who is not backward in coming forward with expressions of impatience or despair with fellow team members, Armstrong had given a convincing demonstration of goalscoring instinct in the space of 20 minutes to decide a contest which appeared to be heading for a stalemate.

After 62 minutes he followed in a chipped pass from Darren Anderton and rounded Everton's keeper, Thomas Myhre, before shooting Tottenham into a 2-1 lead from an acute angle.

Having got his eye in at last, after a number of hesitant efforts in the first half, Armstrong was clearly on a roll. And when Tottenham's promising central defender Luke Young drilled the ball through the heart of the Everton defence to send Armstrong in on goal with his striking partner Les Ferdinand, goal number three was clearly imminent. A neat backheel by Ferdinand then sent Armstrong clear of the last defender and free to drive home a powerful shot.

Armstrong completed the first Tottenham treble since Jurgen Klinsmann rounded off last season with four goals against Wimbledon when he was sent clear on the right by Anderton's pass. Jubilation for Tottenham; desperation for an Everton side who had seemed equal to their challenge.

Walter Smith criticised a linesman and referee Graham Poll for allowing Armstrong's first goal. "It was a clear handball and that's why our goalkeeper Thomas Myhre hesitated in going for it," said the Everton manager.

None of Smith's charges seemed up to the task of containing Ginola, who sent over a sequence of sumptuous crosses from the left. However, Armstrong was unable to use the service to best advantage, most notably in the 19th minute when he miscontrolled a floating offer at the far post.

But Tottenham's frustration ended within four minutes, as an Armstrong header from another Ginola cross spun down off the back of a defender's head and Ferdinand, given sufficient time and space to run back behind the ball, jabbed it powerfully past Myhre on the turn.

Compared to their dismal home record of six goalless draws and three goals in 10 matches, Everton's away form this season has been positively bountiful. In the nine matches before this one, they managed an average of a goal a game.

The average was duly maintained on the half hour when Don Hutchison's cross was headed low past the Tottenham keeper by Ibrahima Bakayoko.

Yet so strange was this affair, so fluctuating the ebb and flow, that just before and just after half-time Everton appeared to be so much in control and so wasteful of chances of their own that any smug assumption among the 36,053 crowd that the hallelujah days are returning would have vanished into thin air.

However, with Steffen Freund, the experienced German ball-winner on his way, the signs of revival under George Graham's pragmatic and stern coaching are apparent. In the fifth minute, David Ginola curled such an inviting cross from the corner flag that Armstrong, getting in front of Slaven Bilic, might have scored, let alone glance his header over the crossbar. In the twentieth minute, Ginola repeated the invitation and Armstrong, with his lack of control evident for all to see, allowed the chance to slip.

With Darren Anderton and Ferdinand, no less, biting into tackles that may have something to do with Tottenham's new management, the opening goal, when it came, had everything to do with the Graham effect. Ruel Fox, of all people, energetically chased a lost cause and turned the ball back for Ginola. Inevitably, his cross teased an Everton defence that had already lost Craig Short with a shin injury; Armstrong came in with aerial power, but his attempt struck Bilic and bounced into the turf. From there, the ball spun mesmerically, fooling everyone bar Ferdinand, who thrashed it high into the net.

Shortly afterwards, Tottenham began admiring their craft and forgetting their defence. Don Hutchison spotted Ibrahima Bakayoko lurking at the far post and when Hutchison's slanted through-ball found his colleague, Bakayoko scored with a nod of his head. Within a minute, he was crumpled on the turf, his ankle swollen and his game over. That released Danny Cadamarteri to inject movement and pace that sorely troubled Tottenham and, had Alec Cleland showed sufficient composure, it would have been 2-1 to the visitors before half-time.

Nick Barmby, the starlet who left White Hart Lane, was getting fearful verbal abuse from the Tottenham crowd. He should not have let it bother him when, in the 52nd minute, Cadamarteri held the ball bravely with Sol Campbell at his heels, but Barmby's low shot was pushed away athletically by Ian Walker.

Five minutes later, Armstrong began his 19-minute hat-trick. The first, Walter Smith, the Everton manager, claimed, was illegal. He was certain that, after a precise lob by Anderton, Armstrong used an arm to control the ball. Why else, enquired Smith, would Thomas Myhre, his goalkeeper, stop completely, allowing Armstrong the freedom of the six-yard box?

Smith conceded that his side thereafter lacked composure and certainly lacked the pace to cope with Tottenham's twin centre forwards. In the 75th minute, chasing a hopeful pass from Young, Ferdinand delightfully back-heeled the ball, and Armstrong scored an easy goal. And finally, for him, there was a rasping, rousing finale. Anderton picked out Armstrong, who controlled the ball on his chest and finished explosively from the edge of the penalty area.

Chris Armstrong was their headline act despite a rather chequered all-round performance. He scored his first hat-trick for the club in the space of 18 second-half minutes, but it is worth recording that his first goal came against the run of play and its validity was strongly disputed by Everton manager Walter Smith.

"I thought it was a clear case of hand-ball, and I can't understand why the linesman didn't see it," he said. "It was the reason our goalkeeper stopped and was the turning point of the game. After that we lost some of our discipline but I thought the final score flattered Tottenham a bit."

Everton had emerged relatively unscathed from Tottenham's initial assault thanks to an Ibrahima Bakayoko header which cancelled out Les Ferdinand's opener. Either side of the interval, the visitors then established a measure of control and an outstanding 53rd-minute save by Ian Walker from Nick Barmby's low drive was as crucial to Spurs' victory as Armstrong's goals.

Nevertheless, it was a deserved victory. David Ginola started the match as if he was going to win it single-handedly, flashing a series of dangerous swinging crosses into the Everton penalty area. After 24 minutes, Armstrong fastened on to one of them, and although his header bounced off the back of David Unsworth, Ferdinand was first to the loose ball and scored with an improvised stab off the outside of his right foot.

Everton, who had lost defender Craig Short in the opening moments, were hanging on for dear life. Then, out of the blue, their captain, Don Hutchison, clipped a testing early cross behind the retreating Tottenham defence for Bakayoko to score with a free header.

It had been their first attack of any note and Smith's £4.5 million acquisition played little further part. Two minutes later he collapsed in a heap clutching his ankle, only to throw a tantrum when he was immediately substituted. Even after being led away to the dressing-room for treatment, Bakayoko reappeared on the touchline to remonstrate with physiotherapist Andy Jones. These are strange days at Everton.

His replacement, Danny Cadamarteri, added a bright spark to Everton's sudden emergence in the game. Just before the break, substitute Alex Cleland went close, and then Walker made his sprightly low stop from Barmby following determined approach work from Cadamarteri.

But when Darren Anderton disposed Olivier Dacourt, he lifted a clever pass into Armstrong's path and the Tottenham striker survived the optimistic handball appeals and Thomas Myhre's flimsy challenge to round the goalkeeper and score from a tight angle.

The Everton revival was at an end, and as they vainly searched for a second wind, Armstrong proceeded to blow them away. Armstrong combined with Ferdinand to burst through the centre and confidently stroke home his second goal.

His match ball was duly delivered by Anderton, who carefully coaxed it into his path, and was rewarded with Armstrong's most emphatic finish yet. The highlight of his day was still to come, though, as Ginola waved his arms in worship at Armstrong as he was substituted just before the end.

Aston Villa  2                     Sheffield Wednesday  1  39,217 
Southgate 7, Ehiogu 85             Carbone 9
Charlton Athletic  0               Arsenal  1              20,043  
                                   Overmars pen:53
Derby County  2                    Middlesbrough  1        32,726  
Sturridge 29, Hunt 85              Beck 77
Leicester City  1                  Blackburn Rovers  1     21,083  
Walsh 44                           Gallacher 38
Liverpool  4                       Newcastle United  2     44,605 
Owen 66,79, Riedle 71,84           Solano 29, Andersson 56 
Nottingham Forest  1               Southampton  1          23,456  
Chettle pen:55                     Kachloul 48
Tottenham Hotspur  4               Everton  1              36,053     
Ferdinand 23, Armstrong 62,75,81   Bakayoko 30
West Ham United  2                 Coventry City  0        25,662   
Wright 6, Hartson 67 
 

Chelsea  0                         Manchester United  0    34,741

Leeds United  2                    Wimbledon  2            39,816
Ribeiro 26, Hopkin 57              Earle 41, Cort 83

Club                          P    W    D    L   GF   GA   GD   Pts
Aston Villa                  20   11    6    3   31   20   11   39
Chelsea                      20    9   10    1   31   17   14   37
Manchester United            20    9    8    3   39   23   16   35
Arsenal                      20    9    8    3   22   11   11   35
Leeds United                 20    8    9    3   34   19   15   33
West Ham United              20    9    5    6   24   23    1   32
Liverpool                    20    9    4    7   36   25   11   31
Middlesbrough                20    7    9    4   32   26    6   30
Wimbledon                    20    8    6    6   27   32   -5   30
Leicester City               20    7    7    6   23   21    2   28
Derby County                 20    6   10    4   20   18    2   28
Tottenham Hotspur            20    7    6    7   28   30   -2   27
Newcastle United             20    6    6    8   24   28   -4   24
Everton                      20    5    8    7   13   21   -8   23
Sheffield Wednesday          20    6    4   10   21   22   -1   22
Blackburn Rovers             20    4    6   10   20   28   -8   18
Coventry City                20    4    5   11   16   29  -13   17
Charlton Athletic            20    3    7   10   23   31   -8   16
Southampton                  20    3    5   12   16   38  -22   14
Nottingham Forest            20    2    7   11   18   36  -18   13