Match Report Sean Dyche marked his first game back at Turf Moor since being sacked by Burnley 20 months ago with a comfortable victory that extends Everton’s winning run to four matches. Despite the starting XI being disrupted by injury and suspension, the Toffees eased into a 2-0 lead with just 25 minutes gone that allowed them to absorb the further loss of Abdoulaye Doucouré at half-time and see the contest out in the second half against the relegation-threatened Clarets. Amadou Onana scored his first Premier League goal of the season, and his first since bagging against Burnley in the League Cup six weeks ago, while Michael Keane capped a fine return to the side with the second, before hitting the post in the second period as Everton looked to kill the game. Their recent 5-0 demolition of 10-man Sheffield United aside, Vincent Kompany’s men have struggled to score goals since their return to the Premier League and they were blanked today by a Toffees defence that has now kept four successive clean sheets, although it took an excellent save from Jordan Pickford to keep them out. With Jarrad Branthwaite suspended along with Idrissa Gueye and all of Seamus Coleman, Ashley Young and Vitalii Mykolenko out injured, Dyche was forced to deploy Keane and Ben Godfrey alongside James Tarkowski in a back three, with Nathan Patterson and Dwight McNeil as wing-backs. But after a shaky few minutes where they appeared to be finding their feet, Everton should have scored. Jack Harrison whipped a superb cross from the right to the back of the area but McNeil steered a free header across goal and past the far post. Great pressure by the Blues and terrific work by Patterson down the right flank then led to another good chance but this time, James Trafford in the Burnley goal kept them out. The young Scot snapped into a tackle to win the ball, collected a pass down the line from Harrison and crossed beautifully for Dominic Calvert-Lewin but the striker’s downward header was palmed behind impressively by the young Clarets keeper. Everton scored from the resulting corner, however, as McNeil swung the ball into the six-yard box and Onana rose highest to power it home from close range. The hosts threatened an immediate response when Doucouré blocked a goal-bound shot from Jacob Bruun Larsen and Tarkowski did well to block Jay Rodriguez’s shot at close quarters after Burnley had got into space behind Patterson. The visitors doubled their advantage following another set-piece, however. Pickford floated a free-kick from near the halfway line to Tarkowski who nodded it into the path of Keane. The latter defender’s initial shot was parried by the goalkeeper but it ricocheted off Dara O’Shea and back to Keane who calmly slotted past Trafford. Doucouré was on hand to make another block in the box to deny O’Shea at the other end but it was Godfrey who made the most telling defensive contribution of the half in stoppage time when he slid Vitinho’s dangerous cross behind with Wilson Odobert ready to pounce. With Doucouré apparently not able to continue, Dyche introduced Lewis Dobbin after the interval but it was Burnley who would carry most of the threat in the second half. Vitinho played Bruun Larsen in behind McNeil but the Dane could only plant his cross into Pickford’s arms and Lyle Foster shot tamely at the Everton keeper from the edge of the box while James Garner prompted Trafford into palming his free-kick behind at the other end. The Blues came close to killing the game just past the hour mark when another deep corner arrived at Keane’s feet at the far post, his attempt to flick it around the post came back off the woodwork, a further bounce off Vitinho hit the same upright before Burnley hacked it away. The closest the Clarets came to scoring was midway through the second half when Zeki Amdouni let fly from 25 yards with a swerving effort was arrowing towards the top corner until Pickford beat it away with an out-stretched glove. Sander Berge rattled the crossbar with a similarly impressive shot but the goal wouldn’t have counted as Bruun Larsen had strayed offside before he cut the ball back from near the byline. Beto came on for Calvert-Lewin with eight minutes to go and forced a near-post save from the keeper as the match ticked into the 90th minute while substitute Mike Tresor despatched a rising shot over before referee Anthony Taylor called time. The win, also Everton’s fourth successive clean sheet and their fourth away from home in a row, lifts the Toffees up another place to 16th and puts more daylight between themselves and the relegation zone with Luton’s match at Bournemouth abandoned following the medical emergency suffered by the Hatters’ skipper, Tom Lockyer. It’s another shot in the arm ahead of a League Cup quarter-final against Fulham on Tuesday and then difficult assignments either side of Christmas against Tottenham and Manchester City. Lyndon Lloyd top Matchday Updates 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. Michael Kenrick top Match Preview Everton’s busy December continues when they make the short trip to Turf Moor this weekend to take on relegation-threatened Burnley. The two clubs are separated by just a five points at the bottom of the table but their respective form is very different and the Blues are, of course, sitting in 17th only because of the 10-point deduction imposed by the Premier League last month. Things are quite different to the last time Everton visited this part of Lancashire. 19 months ago, Richarlison was scoring goals for the Toffees, Frank Lampard was manager and Sean Dyche was in the home dugout. On that dramatic night in April last year, Everton coughed up a 2-1 half-time lead and eventually lost 3-2 in a result that appeared, at the time, to signal the immediate futures of both clubs. Of course, the Blues stayed up and Burnley went down having sacked Dyche in between. Having run away with the Championship title last season, the Clarets have endured a tough return to the top flight so far thus far. Their only two victories so far this season have come against the two teams that came uop with them from the second tier, Luton and Sheffield United, and their victory over the Blades 10 days ago was their first of the campaign at home. Under Vincent Kompany, though they have looked porous at the back and have struggled for goals, they have been showing glimmers in recent weeks that they won't continue to be the walk-overs they were in the early weeks of the season. Kompany will have to do without Luca Koleosho, Lyle Foster and Jack Cork due to injury while Charlie Taylor is suspended having picked up his fifth yellow card. Josh Cullen will be assessed before the game but is unlikely to be passed fit. For Everton, neither Seamus Coleman nor Ashley Young will be available. Coleman recently made his long-awaited return from a knee injury that required surgery in May, playing 66 minutes against Newcastle United last week before being replaced by Nathan Patterson with an unspecified knock. He was also absent from the win on Sunday in which Young himself had to be substituted shortly before half-time. With Jarrad Branthwaite suspended along with midfielder Idrissa Gueye, there was a risk that Dyche would be short-handed at the back for the first time this season but after missing the Chelsea clash completely, Keane has reportedly trained this week and could be in contention for the trip to his former club on Saturday. The defender, who hasn't played since coming on at halfway through in the Anfield derby following Young's dismissal for two bookable offences, is hoping to have recovered from an ankle problem in time. Amadou Onana should be fit to start in Gueye's place in midfield but Andre Gomes will be given a 90-minute run-out for the Under-21s as the final step in his recovery from a troublesome calf issue of his own. The last two times these teams met, Dyche infamously revealed that he had told his Burnley side that Everton under Lampard had "forgotten how to win". Nowadays, the Toffees are in great form and have very much found a winning groove with Dyche at the helm at Goodison Park. The 52-year-old spent a decade at Turf Moor but he will be all business once the game gets underway on his first game back at his old stomping ground. "I always had a big respect and a big connection with the people and the fans because of my time, and the team's time, and what was achieved there," Dyche said in his press conference at Finch Farm. "To be honest, when the whistle blows, I want to win. That's work time, that is what I am in the game for – to win." Kick-off: 5:30pm, Saturday, 16 December, 2023Referee: Anthony TaylorVAR: Chris KavanaghLast Time: Burnley 3 - 2 Everton Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Patterson, Keane, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Onana, Garner, Harrison, McNeil, Doucouré, Calvert-Lewin Lyndon Lloyd top * Unfortunately, we cannot control other sites' content policies and therefore cannot guarantee that links to external reports will remain active.