Use your head and sign up now for the Everton FC newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

He was, by Sam Allardyce's own admission, thrown in at the deep end, one of very few players to make their competitive debut in English league football at Wembley.

And having been on the receiving end of a 4-0 thrashing, he could be forgiven for wondering what he has let himself in for.

Welcome to Everton and the Premier League, Cenk Tosun.

As debuts go it was, on the face of it, one to forget.

Yet the Turkey international, bought for £27million from Besiktas eight days earlier, was one of the few Everton players to emerge with any semblance of credit from a tortuous Saturday evening against Tottenham Hotspur.

But do the statistics back up what the naked eye suggested?

That Tosun was isolated as the lone striker was at times painfully obvious. Intriguingly, though, his total of 33 touches before being replaced on 62 minutes was only five fewer that of Gylfi Sigurdsson, who lasted the full 90.

His passing accuracy of 60.9% wasn't great – of Everton's outfield players, only Mason Holgate was less successful – but that's perhaps understandable given such an embryonic relationship with his new team-mates.

Interestingly, though, no Blues player made more key passes than Tosun's two, while his tally of two shots was surpassed only by Wayne Rooney.

The striker also won five of his aerial duels, more than any other Everton player and second only to Tottenham Hotspur's Jan Vertonghen.

Dribbling is clearly not Tosun's forte – he didn't attempt any – but that he conceded four fouls indicates he doesn't mind putting himself about a bit.

What the statistics don't show, though, is the way in which Tosun earned one pressure-relieving free-kick in the first half, highlighting a game intelligence and craftiness of which the Blues are in need.

Everton touched the ball only 12 times in the Tottenham penalty area all match, of which Tosun contributed four – a blocked shot, a shot off target and the flicked header from which Rooney scored his disallowed 'goal'.

For comparison, Heung-Min had possession 10 times in the Everton box while for Harry Kane it was only three times, two of which led to a goal.

Tosun, in time, will improve. He's not the quickest, but is clearly strong and is capable of making things happen.

And given his contribution when inside the area, the message to Everton is simple – get the ball in the box for the new boy as often as possible.