Everton 1-0 Arsenal (Tarkowski 60′)
It was a goal made in Burnley, the corner from Dwight McNeil, headed in by James Tarkowski that kickstarted Sean Dyche’s Everton reign.
In his first days at Goodison Park, Dyche has been happy to fit the trope: a universal ban on snoods and hats in training. Proper football men. A single target man in Dominic Calvert-Lewin. A thumping challenge from Vitalii Mykolenko on Martin Odegaard and a last-ditch clearance from Conor Coady. Welcome to Dyche-ball – except it is more sophisticated than he is sometimes given credit for.
Tarkowski had fought himself free from Odegaard, to get the other side of a scramble of markers, to score the first goal of a new era which simply has to keep Everton in the Premier League.
It can be hard to sense much optimism with a row of seats empty in the directors box once again, as protests before kick-off demanded to “sack the board”. On the streets outside they marched with banners and flares, the faces of chairman Bill Kenwright, majority Farhad Moshiri and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale daubed as clowns. Dyche had walked into a cauldron; the question is whether he will get out of it unscathed.
On this evidence, he is just the man. That febrile anger dissipated almost immediately as he was introduced to the crowd, even as a plane flew above him bearing the message: “The worst-run club in the Premier League, time to go Bill.”
Like Frank Lampard, who retained the sympathy of the fans not only because of that magical night under the stars when he kept them up, Dyche has been dealt an almost unplayable hand. The transfer window would have been comical, were the possible consequences not so serious.
Letting Arnaut Danjuma go after he had done his medical and media interviews, selling Anthony Gordon and not signing any of the four players meant to replace him, and failing even to persuade Andre Ayew that Goodison would be a more appealing prospect than Nottingham Forest – this is what Dyche has walked into.
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Referees using secret devices to record conversations and protect themselves from false claims03 February, 2023It is fair to say, though, that the way Everton managed Arsenal here was partly an indictment of Lampard. They made the table-toppers look the worst they have all season in the first half. In the early exchanges the Toffees struggled to get hold of the ball, but the shape was always there. Odegaard was never given space. Gabriel Martinelli was easily contained by Seamus Coleman, a man who has been on the books so long his Everton career overlapped with Mikel Arteta’s for two years.
Dyche had opted for a 4-5-1, with Amadou Onana given license to roam forward and tearing free from Odegaard to sprint up-field and square it across the goal mouth. It was only a pity that Calvert-Lewin could not connect. Still, it bodes well for next week’s trip to Anfield against a Liverpool midfield that ought to be ripe for the taking.
What is of greater concern is how little Everton could keep the ball in the final third once Calvert-Lewin had gone off. He had teamed up well with the industrious McNeil but the attack’s hopes were pinned on him, and against a more clinical version of Arsenal, one goal would surely not have been enough.
The title, Arteta knows, is his to lose. If Manchester City do close the gap, will it be the result of Pep Guardiola’s inexorable march towards glory, or a damning charge against Arsenal’s mentality? When Bukayo Saka and Odegaard have a bad day such as this, who is there to pick up the slack?
Or perhaps we have just witnessed the new-manager bounce which Dyche’s appointment promised. According to Michael Owen, “they will easily survive on this evidence.” Too early to say, but Everton look transformed. Onto the Merseyside derby.
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