Tottenham's Frustration on Merseyside Balanced by Clear Progress This Season

Tottenham were expected to beat Everton at Goodison Park. 

Roberto Martinez's team are talented and dangerous, but they are flawed defensively and have consistently struggled at home this season. 

Having bossed a first half that ended with the teams level at 1-1, Spurs were expected to go on with the job and secure all three points. 

By the final whistle, most of their fans were happy with a single point after Everton's second-half improvement.

On a number of occasions this season, Tottenham's frustration at drawing a match that they've dominated has been rounded up to a reflection of their overall improvement. 

That Spurs are no longer satisfied with draws from tricky away fixtures is identified as the hallmark of a team with justifiably lofty ambitions. 

Dele Alli, scorer of Tottenham's first-half equaliser against Everton, gave a post-match interview very much along those lines:

"

.@Dele_Alli: "We deserved 3 points. We dominated. The performance was up there. We've turned it round since Newc." pic.twitter.com/SELhPtAEG8

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 3, 2016"

Spurs' result on Merseyside can be viewed as a failure or a marker of progress. In reality, it is probably both. 

They should probably have been out of sight in the first half. 

Harry Kane's eighth-minute shot, bouncing off the inside of Tim Howard's right post, could so easily have given them the perfect start.

That previous Tottenham teams would have lost this match in the dying minutes seems almost a cliche observation, but that is precisely what happened in the same fixture in 2012. 

That Spurs side wilted under the pressure and surrendered a 90th-minute lead to lose 2-1. 

Jon Super/Associated Press

Mauricio Pochettino's team is far stronger. They bent under Everton's late onslaught but emerged unbroken. 

Roberto Martinez blundered in his initial team selection but won the coaching duel with his second-half tweaks. 

Heading the Premier League's form table and having taken more points across the Festive Period than any other club, Spurs can be happy with 10 points from their last four games. 

Three wins on the bounce before the stalemate with Everton was the perfect response to the embarrassment of a 2-1 home defeat against Newcastle in December. 

The mental strength and character that Spurs have shown in recent weeks is the most important development of this season. 

There is a proven toughness that makes them the strongest team outside the top three and favourites for the final Champions League place. 

Despite having lost only twice after 20 matches, Tottenham's league record is not stellar and must be improved upon. 

They've drawn as many matches as they've won (nine each), and that is not a good enough return. 

However, Pochettino's team remains a work in progress with ample room for improvement. 

Two looming home games in four days, against Leicester and Sunderland, will test that progress in different ways. 

First, the Foxes and their mastery of counter-attacking football will return to White Hart Lane just days after meeting Spurs there in the FA Cup. 

The best away team in the division since October, Leicester are more than capable of upsetting Spurs on their own turf. 

However, Claudio Ranieri's team have taken just two points from their last three games, and their buoyant start to the season may just be running out of steam. 

Spurs must take three points from that fixture in order to draw them closer in the top-four battle. 

Then Sam Allardyce's relegation-battling Sunderland will present a fierce, physical opposition. 

The Black Cats have only won once since the end of November. That came in a brutal six-pointer against Aston Villa. 

Six points from those two matches would almost certainly see Spurs into third place. 

Regardless of immediate movement up the table, Tottenham are performing at a consistently high level. 

Their hopes of Champions League football in 2016-17 are growing with each passing week. 

Jon Super/Associated Press

The resilience of this Tottenham team is the biggest change from previous years, and even decades. 

Pochettino has developed toughness in his team so that a draw is almost the minimum return from every fixture. 

Without any shining individual performances, and in the absence of midfield lynchpin Mousa Dembele, Tottenham were good enough to outplay their hosts for much of the match. 

Victory over Everton would have preserved a five-point break from Manchester United in fifth, but the hard-fought nature of the draw is worth more than the single point. 

It showed the mental strength that is fast becoming synonymous with this exciting, young team.