Everton 1 – 0 Burnley
Everton won in the Premier League for the first time in 14 attempts, gratefully accepting a goal served up on a platter by Arijanet Muric and hanging on to claim three priceless points after Dara O’Shea was sent off midway through the second half.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin closed the Burnley goalkeeper down as the latter attempted to play the ball out from his area, and profited with a fortunate but potentially massive goal.
It was a stoppage time gift that was wholly undeserved by the home side, who were desperately poor for the opening 45 minutes, with a reworked central midfield struggling to create chances and neither Ashley Young nor Dwight McNeil able to provide any threats from the flanks
André Gomes started in the middle alongside the recalled James Garner, with Amadou Onana missing out through injury and Idrissa Gueye absent following the birth of his child late the night before.
With Everton employing a mind-numbing long-ball game in a swirling wind for much of the first period, the fast and intense start that the vocal Goodison faithful would’ve hoped for never materialised.
Instead, the contest soon evolved into a pattern of mostly ineffective Burnley possession, plenty of huff and puff from Everton, trying to close them down, and by the quarter of an hour mark, the Toffees had fashioned little more than a handful of half openings.
Seamus Coleman, starting in place of Ben Godfrey, got to the byline but his cut-back was intercepted for a corner in the seventh minute and, two minutes later, Calvert-Lewin won a free-kick in a dangerous area but McNeil overhit both set-pieces while Gomes failed to beat the first man with a disappointing second corner a few minutes later.
Despite the paucity of their display – apart from the exceptional Jarrad Branthwaite and Coleman, it was hard to see any quality on the day – Sean Dyche’s side continued to carry the greater threat but Abdoulaye Doucouré’s driven cross from near the byline was smothered by Muric and McNeil selfishly opted to shoot when an chance to split the defence opened up and his daisy-cutter was comfortably gathered.
Burnley stuck to their possession formula and started to make inroads once the 20-minute mark had passed. Charlie Taylor lined up a shot that Coleman blocked superbly with his body and the Dane had another sight of goal 12 minutes later then a needless foul by James Tarkowski earned him a booking and the Clarets a direct free-kick chance from 25 yards out but the ball cleared the crossbar.
Then, from a Burnley corner, David Datro Fofana popped up with an uncontested header but could only guide the delivery into Jordan Pickford’s arms, Burnley’s only effort on target on the day.
That appeared to be that for the first half, with Evertonians no doubt ready to grumble their way through the interval wondering how the performance could get better with so few options on the substitutes’ bench, but the game’s decisive moment would come in time added on.
Everton had been pressing the Clarets’ tactic of playing out from the back throughout but Muric was all too casual, delaying his pass long enough for Calvert-Lewin to get into his path and his kick ricocheting off the striker’s outstretched foot before looping into the empty net.
It was the kind of lucky break the Blues have needed and it proved to be just enough because Calvert-Lewin would twice be denied at close quarters by Muric in the second half.
First, Lorenz Assignon’s mis-placed in front of his own box was intercepted by Calvert-Lewin but Muric did well to save the Everton forward’s attempt to squeeze a shot inside the near post with his foot.
One of the hosts’ best moves of the game almost yielded a second goal two minutes later when Gomes found Ashley Young with a terrific switch pass to the right flank but Doucouré couldn’t put the veteran’s deep cross on target at the back post.
McNeil almost slipped Calvert-Lewin in with a through-ball but a defender muscled himself between the striker and the keeper before Gomes sent a free-kick sailing over the goal after he had been fouled outside the box by Josh Cullen.
Though McNeil had put in as poor a first-half display as any Everton player in living memory, he atoned somewhat with his running and industry in the second and when he prodded a loose ball past O’Shea and was sent clattering to the floor on the halfway line, referee Michael Oliver flashed the defender a straight red card.
That provided the Blues the opportunity over the final 23 minutes to carve out the insurance of a second goal but they couldn’t manage it after surviving a close call when Josh Brownhill whipped a curling shot that narrowly missed the far post.
Calvert-Lewin drove horizontally through the Burnley penalty area but missed the target with a left-foot shot and when McNeil clipped a ball in behind the defence for the No.9 to seize on, his first touch made the angle too difficult and Muric made the save.
McNeil himself had a chance to kill the game but bent a shot high and wide and substitute Beto had a penalty claim waved away while Dyche’s men survived a late flurry by the visitors to finally ended the painful wait for three precious points.
In the end, while it wasn’t at all attractive – in truth, it was pretty awful – it ended a record 13-match run without a victory bookended by two very different wins over Burnley. Back in December, a confident and purposeful Everton strolled to a fourth successive win that, even allowing for the possibility of a further points deduction, seemed to have almost banished concerns over relegation for the season.
What has happened in between began with a tricky spell of fixtures and performances lauded for their effort in defeat but as the weeks passed without victory even looking likely, the pressure has piled onto the shoulders of the players and manager alike.
Today’s win was soured by Carlton Morris’s 90th minute winner for Luton town which keeps them within four points of Everton, a gap that could narrow with the verdict from the second independent commission into the Blues’ PSR breach that is expected to come down early this week, possibly as soon as Monday.
But, coming on the heels of that equally fortunate point at Newcastle last Tuesday it will, hopefully, inject some confidence and belief into a group that now has eight days to recover before the trip to Chelsea after three games in the space of a week.