Everton came away with a comfortable 2-0 win from Burnley to make it four consecutive clean sheets, four consecutive wins and four consecutive away victories as well for the Blues as they continue their march up the table.
Manager Sean Dyche, who spent ten years in charge of the Clarets before his sacking just before Burnley went down, made a triumphant return to his old stomping grounds and the relative comfort of the Toffees win will have pleased him as much as the effort put in by the players.
“We are building a team ethic and a team respect and that is getting deeper and deeper. The link with the fans is real and getting more and more authentic. I always believed when I was a player and now as a manager you need that link with the fans to be successful.
“I am pleased that I have stuck to task with that [building a relationship with the fans] because there is a lot of noise around football. You get told you should be doing this and that, but I believed in what I can deliver with the players, but it is more important that they believe.
“These are good habits, bigger picture things that I believed needed changing and we are making steps towards changing them.”
Midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure has legitimate shouts to being Everton’s Player of the Season so far with his knack for showing up with key goals for the club, but he had to leave the game today at the half and the manager shed some light on his situation.
“He’s got a tight hamstring but we are struggling for numbers so it was not a risk we could take. We are hopeful it is nothing too major but you never know, so we had to change it.”
Left back Vitalii Mykolenko missed today’s game with a groin issue, and the manager didn’t necessarily have good news either.
“We are waiting on that [Mykolenko injury]. At the moment we are piecing together different parts of the pitch but that is how it is sometimes.”
The injury concerns remain for the Blues with that news and another huge game coming up on Tuesday, a Carabao Cup quarterfinal against former manager Marco Silva’s Fulham at Goodison Park. Jarrad Branthwaite and Idrissa Gueye will be back from suspension, and Andre Gomes might get a look-in after featuring for the Under-21s, but there is no new word on both Seamus Coleman and Ashley Young, while Dele Alli remains far from participation too.
