Tottenham did something they haven't done in 17 years against Everton

Sunday's 3-0 victory over Everton was one Thomas Frank desperately needed after a deflating week, although Spurs were once again reliant on set-pieces to get the job done.

The dead ball has seemingly never been so important in the Premier League. Arsenal's brilliance from such situations and their rise to the top of the division this season has seemingly placed a newfound emphasis and reliance on set plays. It's the new meta.

Frank has long been an set-piece advocate, unlike predecessor Ange Postecoglou, with his Brentford teams bridging the gap between themselves and the resource havens that surrounded them in the top flight by maximising every opportunity they got to wreak havoc in the opposition's box.

This was no spectacular Spurs performance, but there were positive changes from the Aston Villa defeat and Monaco draw. Randal Kolo Muani's first start was encouraging, and we saw Mohammed Kudus perform a slightly different role in tandem with Brennan Johnson.

Still, Spurs sought a unique route to victory at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Tottenham's unique route to comprehensive Everton victory

For the first time since March 2008, Spurs scored three headed goals in a Premier League match. Juande Ramos was in charge when we thumped West Ham 4-0 in our previous header-fest, with Dimitar Berbatov scoring twice against the ten-man Hammers.

Alan Hutton, Pascal Chimbonda and Didier Zokora were in Ramos’ starting XI that day, while club legend Gilberto scored his only goal in Lilywhite off the bench. We were a month removed from our Carling Cup final triumph over Chelsea at Wembley.

Spurs' production on Merseyside didn't exclusively arrive from set-pieces, but Micky van de Ven's first-half brace came courtesy of two wicked dead-ball routines and deliveries. The Dutchman first headed home from Rodrigo Bentancur's back post win before outmuscling Jordan Pickford to finish a pinpoint Pedro Porro inswinger on the stroke of half-time.

After Guglielmo Vicario resisted Everton's second-half advances, Pape Matar Sarr completed Spurs' Sunday of headers (this time from open play) after some good work from Richarlison.

The poets and romantacists are currently weeping at the state of the English top-flight, but its one that Frank's Spurs are seemingly built to thrive in. Inflicting the first defeat upon Everton at their impressive new home means the Lilywhites are up to third with the joint-best scoring record in the division. Who'd have thunk it?!

Complaining over the nature of such victories feels somewhat entitled, especially when we were without our captain, most dynamic left-back and multiple creative bodies at the weekend. Let Frank's set-piece army roll on!