22’ – Burnley trying hard to get back into the game, with both Doucoure and Tarkowski blocking goalbound shots in the box.
18’ – Oh Dom! Patterson wins the ball with a hungry challenge near the touchline, Harrison gets it back to him and his delivery is delightful, DCL gets up and heads it down and it’s just too close to James Trafford and the England Under-21 international parries it away brilliantly for a corner.
Corner from McNeil, ONANA RISES HIGHEST AT THE BACK POST AND HEADS HOME UNCHALLENGED!! Everton lead 1-0!
14’ – Everton have given Burnley too much respect in the beginning of this game, but are starting to impose themselves here. Harrison wins a corner on the right. McNeil applauded by the home fans who remember him well, goalie parries it across the goal and out for a corner on the other side.
Garner now, Tarky high and back across the goal, goalie is obstructed in his attempt to collect it.
10’ – Oh Dwight! McNeil gets into space on the left, his cross is overhit and partly cleared, cycled back to Harrison on the right and a delightful cross back into the box, and an unmarked McNeil at the back post heads tantalizingly across the goal and wide.
6’ – Larsen gets free behind the Everton left and Tarkowski has to concede a corner. Twice now the Blues have seen a wingback get behind them with a long ball. They are keeping a moderately high line.
5’ – Jay Rodriguez whining as twice the Blues have gone in hard on him.
2’ – Once Jack Harrison got comfortable behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin last week he looked good, he’ll get another shot at that when the Blues are in a 3-5-2, but for now it looks more like a 5-4-1.
1’ – Underway at Turf Moor! As previously predicted, Everton are indeed in a back-five with Keane and Godfrey on either side of Tarkowski, and Dwight McNeil is the left wingback, and Patterson on the right. The best decision under the circumstances.
Everton
The rumours we had heard about Vitalii Mykolenko do appear to be true, so both Michael Keane and Ben Godfrey get starts, with Nathan Patterson starting on the right, and only James Tarkowski remaining unchanged in that backline.
Burnley
Everton travel to Turf Moor looking to make it four wins in a row, while increasing the gap between themselves and their hosts today Burnley. Confidence is brimming within the side with a series of strong results in the last couple of months, but Everton have also shown us that they are still prone to the lapses in concentration that can see the game get taken away from them when they don’t score early on, or indeed, first.
Under Vincent Kompany this Burnley is quite different from the side Sean Dyche was sacked from as the Clarets went down. The former City man’s insistence on playing a certain way has been bold but has rarely paid off well as their lowly position in the table indicates.
Competition: Premier League Matchweek 17
Date and start time: Saturday, December 16th at 9:30 a.m. PT / 12:30 p.m ET / 5:30 p.m. BST
Stadium: Turf Moor, Burnley, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 21,944
Weather: 43°F/9°C, cloudy, 0% chance of precipitation, 16 mph winds
TV: NBC, Peacock – United States; Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event – United Kingdom; Fubo – Canada, beIN Sports Premium 1, SuperSport Premier League ROA, SuperSport MaXimo 2, Star Sports Select 1
Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio UK, BBC Radio 5 Live, SiriusXM FC
Live stream: Fubo, nbcsports.com, Sky GO Extra, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, Universo Now, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Hotstar VIP, JioTV
Gamethread: The live blog will commence an hour before kickoff with the lineup announcements.
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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
The Toffees’ last visit to Turf Moor resulted in a win for Dyche, only he was still the home manager at the time. That was the famous Clarets win in their relegation season when it looked like they were going to survive the drop at Everton’s expense after a 3-2 comeback win.
The two sides have already played each other this season in the Carabao Cup, with the Toffees romping to a 3-0 win at Goodison in the beginning of November.
