James Tarkowski believes Everton can pick up the points they need to avoid relegation without having to rely on results elsewhere going in their favour.
The Blues came into the game inside the bottom three, but eventually finished the night in 15th place after Michael Keane scored a stunning last minute equaliser to cancel out Harry Kane’s opener.
Everton were the better team in the opening hour at Goodison Park, but the game turned on its head when Abdoulaye Doucoure was shown a straight red card for pushing Kane in the face after the two had a coming together.
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Kane then fired Spurs ahead from the penalty spot after Keane brought down Cristian Romero inside the box. But Everton refused to give in, and after substitute Lucas Moura was given his marching just minutes after coming, Keane sent Goodison wild when he fired past Hugo Lloris from 25-yards-out.
And while Tarkowski admits it is hard not to get distracted by results elsewhere in the Premier League, he believes that if his side do their job then they will be playing top-flight football next season.
He said: “I can't not watch the results. I would have to live in a box to do that. But I don’t put too much focus on it.
“I try and put a lot of focus on how we perform and the points we are going to pick up. If we do our job then there is no worrying about anyone else and tonight we put a good performance in and got a point for it.
“We always want to win games but I think in the end you take a point after being down to 10 men for a while.”
Before he added: “For me, as I said, if we put points on the board ourselves we won’t be looking at the table at the end of the season looking at who is above us and below us. We will have done our job.
“For me, I just focus on what we are going to do and if we do that come the end of the season we will be okay.”
Tarkowski also believes his Everton side showed more evidence of their growing character in the way they came from behind to rescue a point against Cristian Stellini’s side.
“I just think it feels nice when you come back from a goal behind,” he said after the game. “I thought they were there for the taking at the end, to be honest.
“We was the team going for it and I know they got a couple of chances late on, but after we scored I was ready to go again and try and get the winner.
“So yeah, good night because they are a side that are in a bit of a funny place with the manager going, but I thought we performed really well and before the sending off we was the better team.”
Before he added: “I think the desire, the hard work, the commitment and the togetherness of the team they are all important factors and that is something that the manager has put a massive emphasis on recently, and it was right on show tonight.”
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