Dyche finds the best way to return to Turf Moor

Burnley 0 - 2 Everton

Sean Dyche makes his first return to former club Burnley as Everton manager with a depleted squad through injuries and suspensions.

Gana and Branthwaite have both accumulated five yellow cards and sit this one out, but Onana returns with Michael Keane playing against his old club and Ben Godfrey getting a rare start. 

Elijah Campbell and Jenson Metcalfe are elevated to the bench from the Under-21s with Mackenzie Hunt but Dyche names two goalkeepers as subs.

The home side got the game under way and tried to push Everton back. Garner was in rather strongly on Rodriguez for the first set-piece, a deep free-kick that Onana headed out for a throw. Burnley again played a long forward ball behind the Everton line and this time won a corner.

But Burnley played it backwards and Everton locked in to a seemingly impenetrable 5-4-1 block when defending, and started to do better in terms of getting forward, McNeil laying a beautiful cross in for Calvert-Lewin who hardly jumped for it before McNeil himself drove a header just beyond the far post. 

More balls were played up for Calvert-Lewin but he was unable to claim them until Patterson found him well and the centre-forward headed the ball down nicely for Garner who was immediately ransacked.

McNeil's first corner saw Trafford parry it behind. The second corner Tarkowski could get no power on his header at the far post and Burnley scrambled it away. Trafford then had to scamper out of his area to race Calvert-Lewin to the ball. 

Patterson forced a great turnover and then swung in a fantastic cross that Calvert-Lewin headed down and it was very well saved by Trafford at the expense of another corner which Onana powered his way in and towered over everyone to head home. An excellent goal. 

Onana then forced a tremendous turnover with a great tackle that really amped up the atmosphere as Burnley surged back upfield and Everton had to defend. Rodriguez did well to turn in the area but he was closed down; however, they were doing their best to stretch the Everton defence. 

McNeil got on a run but it went to his head and he wastefully lashed it over from distance.  But Everton got forward again, Keane testing Trafford with a decent shot that was parried back to him off a defender, and this time he slotted home with consummate ease to make it 2-0 for the Blues. 

Everton's brilliant start made for a great competition with Burnley now extremely agitated to lose two goals, and determined to press forward and get behind the Everton line. But Everton's recovery to some great probing balls down the flanks was equally good.

Everton were also pressing Burnley well when they tried to play out of defence, Calvert-Lewin drawing a foul but the free-kick was cleared. Keane found Patterson with an excellent long pass as the Blues looked to play the game in the Burnley half. Godfrey's balls forward were not quite as clinical. 

Odobert was just a little too quick for Patterson, who caught him to give away a free-kick that was effectively defended, McNeil playing up to win a corner in 4 minutes of added time. Keane got to it at the near post but got too much on his header when it needed more of a glance. 

Vitinho got behind the line again and this time it looked like a certain goal but Godfrey, back at speed and stretching, took the ball away from Zeki Amdouni and fractionally past the post — brilliant defending but could so easily have been an own-gaol to round off an excellent first half for the blues. 

Abdoulaye Doucoure did not come out for the second half, with Lewis Dobbin taking his place. Patterson allowed Bruun Larsen to run free and cross unhindered. From the following corner, the ball ran too easily through the Everton defence. Bruun Larsen then skinned Harrison but shot at Pickford in a decent spell for the home side. 

At the other end, Harrison won a dangerous free-kick from Vitinho, Garner going for the far corner of goal, Trafford touching it behind for a corner. Calvert-Lewin then clattered O'Shea when he had no chance of getting the ball. Burnley almost broke through and ended up with Harrison fouling Odobert for a very dangerous free-kick near the dee. But Bruun Larsen's shot flew off the wall for a corner that was cleared via Foster getting nicely double-teamed. 

Good work by McNeil won a corner that came off the far post not once but twice with Keane in close attendance but without going in. Going the other way, Amdouni got into some space and struck a fine shot that Pickford had to claw away with an equally fine save.

Into the final phase of the game and Everton were looking to maintain the defensive block without risking too much going forward, and they effectively took most of the sting out of Burnley's play, but this meant almost giving the ball back so the Clarets could regroup and try yet again and again. Perhaps a timely warning of the risks this posed was Berge's shot that smacked the face of Pickford's bar. 

Beto came on for the last 8 minutes plus added time. Everton mounted a rare attack that came to nothing as Kompany made more subs. Beto chased a difficult ball but could not get a shot on goal as Trafford denied him and Everton played out another tremendous win on the road. 

Burnley: Trafford, O’Shea, Beyer, Vitinho (87' Redmond), Delcroix (70' Al-Dakhil), Brownhill, Berge, Bruun Larsen (82' Benson), Odobert (87' Trésor), Rodríguez (46' Foster), Amdouni.

Subs not Used: Muric, Roberts, Cullen, Obafemi.

Everton: Pickford, Patterson, Tarkowski, Keane, Godfrey, Onana, Garner [Y:79'], Harrison, Doucoure (46' Dobbin), McNeil, Calvert-Lewin (82' Beto).

Subs not Used: Virginia, Lonergan, Danjuma, Chermiti, Hunt, Campbell, Metcalfe.

---

Reader Comments (234)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()

---

How to get rid of these ads and support TW