Level Unlocked – Everton Finally Find Their Cutting Edge at Home

Everton 3 - 0 Bournemouth

There’s no question that had Everton lost this game, making it a club record fifth successive home defeat, this international break would have made for a long fortnight of recriminations, anxiety and fevered discussion over the future of a manager whom the club probably couldn’t afford to sack anyway.

Last weekend’s loss to Luton was a sickener that threw up question marks over Sean Dyche’s ability to set up his team to defend on the one hand and to attack opposition sides with any guile or semblance of a plan beyond the long ball to twin strikers who had never played together before — and it showed! — on the other.

This, then, was the tonic to lift Evertonian spirits heading into a two-week hiatus before the trip to Mordor that lies on the other side. Last week, Dyche had referenced his team’s almost incomprehensible xG when compared with their miserable goal return and this week those attacking metrics finally aligned with the scoreline as Everton handily beat Bournemouth to record their first home since the two clubs last met in late May.

In truth, had the margin of victory been twice as wide, Cherries boss Andoni Iraola couldn’t have complained — his side were that bad and Everton were that dominant for all but a few minutes midway through the first half when the 1-0 lead afforded to the hosts by James Garner’s first Goodison goal felt a lot more slender that it should have.

The Toffees scored three (the first time they’d notched more than one at home in almost a year) but also hit the bar, forced Neto into a couple of important saves and saw a handful of other really good opportunities pass them by in what was a hugely satisfying victory.

If Dyche’s time at Everton so far as told us anything it’s that the first goal is almost alway decisive in terms of whether the Blues will win and while we’ll never know for sure, it felt as though his decision (whether forced or not by rumoured disciplinary action against Amadou Onana for showing up late to training) to finally deploy Garner in his preferred central-midfield role was instrumental to this victory.

The 22-year-old had started in that position at Aston Villa 10 days ago and scored his first goal in an Everton jersey and just seven minutes into today’s must-win encounter with Bournemouth, he confidently grabbed his second to set the hosts on their way.

Granted, it came from an unfortunate slip by Illia Zabarnyi but the team just looked that much more cohesive and potent with Garner playing alongside Onana who, in stark contrast to his disappointingly muted display against the Hatters a week ago, was increasingly effective as the afternoon wore on.

That pairing hadn’t been Dyche’s plan; Idrissa Gueye was the manager’s intended partner for Gueye but the Senegalese sustained a foot injury in the warm-up and was forced to pull out and watch from the bench. The presence of Jack Harrison in the starting XI was very much part of the plan, however, and the winger delivered on the promising signs in his two appearances off the bench since returning from injury to provide energy, invention and tenacity on the right flank as well as the finest goal to grace Goodison for quite a while.

It took a few minutes during a fairly scrappy opening for the shape of the contest to emerge but Everton’s harassment of the Cherries’ defence soon paid dividends as the visiting defence tried to play out from the back.

Zabarnyi lost his footing trying to turn away from Garner and the midfielder gratefully seized on the loose ball, advanced on Neto in the opposition goal and using Doucouré and Dominic Calvert-Lewin as decoys, he calmly passed it wide of the keeper to score Dyche’s side the potentially pivotal first goal in the game.

The ever-purposeful Dwight McNeil dragged a shot wide of goal from the edge of the box with a quarter hour gone and Calvert-Lewin unwittingly blocked Harrison’s low drive from threatening Bournemouth’s goal a couple of minutes later before the hosts had a flurry of corners that caused the visiting defence all manner of grief without leading to a second goal.

Everton did double their advantage eight minutes before half-time, though, thanks initially to excellent work by Calvert-Lewin who stole along the byline and cut the ball back looking for Doucouré but it was cut out by Lewis Cook for a corner.

Neto managed to punch clear from the set-piece and then got two fists to the return delivery from the left by Vitalii Mykolenko but his second clearance fell to Harrison outside the box who took it first time, sweeping a delicious shot over the defence, stranded keeper and in off the underside of the crossbar.

Though they had enjoyed a spell of superiority midway through the half, Bournemouth for their part had only threatened Pickford’s goal once early on when Dominic Solanke’s ambitious half-volley from an almost impossible angle flew into the side-netting.

And they came within inches of going into the break three goals down in first-half stoppage time. First, Calvert-Lewin’s header came back off the crossbar from Ashley Young’s cross and then Onana swivelled onto Mykolenko’s square pass in the box but it squirmed inches wide.

The pattern of dominance and tenacious pressing from Everton continued into the second half and when Calvert-Lewin forced another error from Zabarnyi and released Doucouré, the Mali international fluffed his lines with a powder-puff finish that Neto comfortably gathered.

He would make amends 13 minutes later, however, moments after Calvert-Lewin had dropped an audacious volley over the crossbar. Doucouré fed McNeil down the left flank and continued his run into the box as the winger curled the ball in towards the back post where Harrison arrived looking to grab his second on the day. His header was blocked on the line but Doucouré was hand to belt home the rebound.

With a bit more composure, the Blues could have inflicted worse damage on the Cherries but Doucouré volleyed another McNeil cross over while Calvert-Lewin was unfortunate to see his clipped effort over the advancing keeper drop a few inches the wrong side of the post and Doucouré blazed another chance over.

A penalty claim by Calvert-Lewin was waved away by referee David Coote but from the corner, Neto made a terrific double-save by his post to deny Onana from point-blank range.

Bournemouth were well beaten by the time the game entered the final 20 minutes but Iraola’s side would have their best chances of the contest at this stage. Solanke had planted a header straight into Pickford’s arms from a central position, Zabarnyi thought he had scored until McNeil cleared his header from under his own crossbar and Moore forced Pickford into a strong parry.

McNeil tested Neto again at the end of a quick counter-attack and, late on, Pickford palmed aside a skidding effort from Marcus Tavernier while Calvert-Lewin’s replacement, Beto, smashed into the side-netting after being played in by McNeil.

Evertonians who saw the wins at Brentford and Aston Villa as a possible inflection point of the season under Dyche but then witnessed the ineptitude on show against Luton will not be getting too far ahead of themselves on the back of a routine win over a poor Bournemouth outfit. There are still moments, like the Cherries’ two first-half free kicks where Phillip Billing was allowed to steal around the back of the defence in the same way Carlton Morris did for Luton last weekend for example, that show that some lessons aren’t being learned.

By the same token, though, this was another illustration of this Everton side’s ability to get forward, force mistakes from their opponents and carve out chances. They bettered their shots tally from the Luton game by 2 with 25 efforts at goal today, 8 of them on target and are reaping the benefits of having a fit and sharp Calvert-Lewin leading the line.

The striker didn’t get the goal his performance deserved but he was terrific from start to finish, holding the ball up well, winning his aerial duels and bringing team-mates into the play. Doucouré, meanwhile, was stamina personified and while not everything comes off for him, his sheer persistence and ability to be in the right places and the right time mean that his chances of causing problems and scoring goals are that much higher. (He has eight since Dyche took over, having been binned off by Frank Lampard.)

It goes without saying that Everton now need to build on this, something that will be difficult against upcoming opponents like Liverpool, West Ham and Brighton, but each fixture presents an opportunity to spring a surprise given the attacking threats that Dyche’s team possess. Keep things tight at the back and they have every chance of picking up some unexpected points in the coming weeks.

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