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Everton ran over two miles less than Spurs at Goodison as their fitness issues were laid bare.

Ronald Koeman headed into the opening day of the season lamenting the fact that his squad were only 70% fit.

And it showed in the end.

The Blues took an early lead, before being pegged back in the second-half but dug in to claim a deserved point with Maarten Stekelenburg pulling off two superb saves late on.

Koeman was satisfied with the point but still stressed that his players need to work harder, run further and press more aggressively.

Gerard Deulofeu and Kevin Mirallas in particular .

“With Gerard, with Kevin... I like the players, but they need to run more,” Koeman said.

“They need to do more, they need to press more.

“It’s all about the work rate of the player. Sometimes it’s difficult because for that creative player, sometimes you’re a little bit more sloppy in that aspect of football.”

Statistics supplied to the ECHO by Opta, show that Idrissa Gueye and Ross Barkley covered the most ground for Everton on Saturday, clocking up 6.8 miles each, while Gareth Barry (replaced with five minutes left) ran 6.7 miles.

Deulofeu, who lasted 68 minutes against Spurs, covered 4.8m while Mirallas, on for 76 minutes, ran 6 miles.

Everton used 14 players at Goodison and covered 68.7 miles.

Spurs used only 12 members of their squad but ran two miles further.

“But we will work on it, and you saw Ross in the second half working hard for the team,” Koeman added.

“It is not a question of how good his technique is or how good his first touch is, it’s about him needing to take more responsibility for the team and to do a job defending also. That makes the team stronger.

“We will learn that, no problem.”

Koeman is in no doubt that Deulofeu and Mirallas needs to work on their fitness levels.

But both were responsible for hitting the top speeds in the Everton squad (20.4 mph and 20 mph respectively) and Deulofeu led the Blues for number of sprints with 53.

Mirallas, however, ranked eighth for Everton at the weekend with just 36.

Barkley and Leighton Baines, with 46 apiece, were joint second and so Koeman will demand the Belgian international is fit enough to increase that number as soon as possible.

The arrival of Yannick Bolasie this week means there is now added competition for places on the flanks at Goodison and the message from Koeman to Mirallas and Deulofeu is clear.