Jamie Carragher suggests Everton have their new Steven Pienaar in ‘quality’ star during win over Tottenham

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Everton scored a much-needed victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday.

David Moyes is off the mark in his second stint as manager at the club, with the Toffees winning 3-2 at Goodison Park.

You never quite know which Spurs will turn up in any given game. Thankfully for Everton, Spurs were completely off it in the first-half.

Everton blew the visitors away with a brilliant performance, and for once showed a real cutting edge in the final third.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his first goal for Everton since August, finishing superbly in the opening stages of the game. Iliman Ndiaye added a second for Everton after a great burst through the middle, before an Archie Gray own goal put the hosts three to the good.

It was a game full of positives, with Everton fans hailing Jesper Lindstrom afterwards following a strong showing from the Danish winger.

Spurs did find two late goals which will have disappointed Moyes. But he and the fans will take the win, and the objective now will be to try and put a bit of a run together.

And key to doing that will be Ndiaye staying in good form.

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Jamie Carragher likens Iliman Ndiaye to Everton cult hero Steven Pienaar

Ndiaye has impressed this season despite Everton’s hardships up top.

He’s often looked like the only player capable of making things happen, and Ndiaye certainly shone against Spurs.

Not only did he score a great goal but he also worked his socks off and at one point in the second-half, he prompted Jamie Carragher to liken him to former Everton cult hero Steven Pienaar.

Carragher said live on Sky: “He’s a good player, he’s got quality.

“If you play for Everton, you’ve got to have more than quality. You’ve got to have that work-rate. He was obviously watching David Moyes when he gave the ball away, he was really frustrated.

“He reminds me a little bit of Steven Pienaar. You go back to David Moyes’ first team. That was a really good Everton team. Just the way he runs with the ball, jinks inside, right-footed player on that left side.

“He’s definitely got traits of Pienaar, who did really well at the club for a few years.”

Carragher isn’t the only Sky pundit to rave about Ndiaye recently. Micah Richards was also left impressed by Ndiaye, with the former defender praising his ability to take players on.

Ndiaye can achieve cult hero status like Pienaar

It was really interesting to hear Carragher make the comparison to Pienaar on Sunday, and few would disagree.

Undoubtedly there are similarities between the pair, such as technical ability and work-rate.

It’s been a difficult season for Everton, but Ndiaye has stood out and there is no reason why he can’t become a real cult hero figure at the club, just like Pienaar was.

Ndiaye is an exciting player who can make things happen. He did that semi-regularly under Dyche, and hopefully, he can do it more consistently under Moyes going forward.

But ultimately, he just seems to be a real Everotn-type player. As Carragher suggested, you can’t just have quality to play for Everton – you have to have that workhorse nature to boot.