Burnley 0-2 Everton: Final | Comfortable win for the Blues as Dyche makes triumphant return

Fulltime Thoughts – Everton did all the hard work in the first half and got the lead, and then didn’t look back from there. A big win for the manager on his return to Turf Moor, onward and upward for the Blues who would be tied with Brighton in eighth place without the stupid points deduction.

90+3’ – Onana fouled as he charges forward, freekick and that should see out the clock.
Fulltime, Everton win 2-0!! Four consecutive clean sheets, four consecutive wins!

90+2’ – Dobbin and Beto almost combine in space.
Tresor cuts in and tries a shot, well wide and over, that should be that.

90’ – Ooh Beto! Garner plays in the big forward and from a narrow angle he is unable to beat the onrushing Trafford.
Three minutes to be added on.

88’ – McNeil concedes a corner, Burnley take it short and eventually have to play it all the way back to their goalie and Beto almost catches him in possession! The Everton forward had little support there or else that could have been an embarrassing third for the Clarets to concede.

86’ – Keane got a bit bold in possession and turned it over in the middle, but the Blues can get numbers back and recover their shape.

82’ – Everton’s second change is Beto on for Calvert-Lewin. Garner booked, kicked the ball away — nearly giving bald-headed ref Taylor a closer shave — in a melee after a foul was given for a Tarky challenge.
Freekick to Burnley, Foster gets his head to it and nudges it wide of the far post, that was a chance too.

79’ – Berge clatters the bar! Looked like Larsen was offside when he set up the midfielder for his shot, but Pickford got an all important fingertip on it to push it onto the horizontal.

73’ – There really hasn’t been much to talk about here as Burnley are unable to make much headway and the Blues are happy to hoof clear.
Foster wins a corner on the Everton left, hacked clear and we go again.

65’ – Amdouni shot from distance heading for the top left corner and Pickford flies across to make a great save, corner cleared by the Blues.

62’ – Amdouni goes over in a tackle from Tarky in the box, he wants a penalty but nothing doing and VAR agrees.
Everton almost score again! A deep corner pingpongs about in the six yard box and Keane standing outside the post tries to wrap his foot around the ball and somehow Burnley clear. Godfrey had a handful of his opponent’s shirt as well so I doubt that would have counted if it had gone in.

56’ – Burnley do have a freekick now in a promising position after Godfrey is harshly adjudged to have fouled a Clarets player. Looked like he got to the ball, but Taylor disagrees. Bruun Larsen looking at it with intent, Tarky in the wall gets his head to it and it’s a corner.
Ball rolls to Foster on the left and he is rudely caught up in a hefty sandwich as Godfrey and Patterson steal the ball off him.

55’ – Boos ring out around Turf Moor as again Taylor keeps his cards in his pocket as DCL barges into O’Shea with no chance of getting the ball.

52’ – Harrison wins a freekick deep down the left. Garner hits it, it’s actually shaping up for the far corner and Trafford fingertips it out for a corner. McNeil’s ball is partly cleared, and the Blues cycle it back around before Tarky’s long ball is collected by Trafford.

50’ – Everton’s defensive improvement is here for all to see.

48’ – All Clarets here in the second half as they are hemming the Blues in and lining up to shoot. Burnley are certainly getting their chances, the Blues cannot just sit in a low block for 45 minutes though, or can they?

46’ – Change for both sides as the second half gets underway. Lewis Dobbin replaces Abdoulaye Doucoure, which will likely mean the Blues will be happy to play counter attacking football for the second half here.
Feelgood story for the Burnley sub, with Lyle Foster returning to the game after taking a mental health break, he’s on for Rodriguez.

45+5’ – Everton have a freekick on the right. Deep from McNeil, Trafford collects as Tarky looks to be bundled over and the away support is vocal about their protests, but nothing doing.
Halftime, Blues lead 2-0.

45+3’ – Godfrey save! A long ball over the high line almost pays off for the Clarets here, as they have the ball down the Everton left, low cross into the box is heading towards a Burnley player for a simple tap-in but Godfrey slides in to intervene! The corner is cleared.

45’ – Patterson beaten on a one-two and goes sliding in, foul given by referee Anthony Taylor. Burnley want a card, Taylor keeps them in his pocket, which is rare for him to be honest, especially when the Blues are playing.
Freekick is cleared and now with four minutes to be added on McNeil wins a corner on the left. Lower this time, Keane tries to flick it on but it’s well over.

42’ – Everton have 38% possession, and are happy to keep the ball in front of them, as Burnley pass the ball around.

38’ – Play stopped here because of a possible head injury to Delcroix, luckily he’s okay to continue. Everton have scored both their goals in front of the very vocal away contingent, and the air has been taken right out of this small ground.

33’ – Freekick for the Blues in a promising spot. Garner into the box, but the hosts have wised up to leaving Tarky wide open at the back post to head it back across the goal and smother him.

28’ – Again Burnley have the ball in the Blues box, but the Toffees are defending en masse and clear it out again.

25’ – Everton freekick in their own half, Pickford into the Burnley box. Tarky wins it, sets up Keane for a snapshot, blocked! Comes back to Keano and he slides it home past the despairing Trafford, 2-0 Everton!!

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.