Everton 1-0 Arsenal
by Layth Yousif
at Goodison Park

FORMER Burnley defender James Tarkowski’s goal on the hour was enough to seal victory for Sean Dyche’s fired-up Everton at a raucous Goodison Park on Saturday.

In front of 39,314 fans on Merseyside, former Clarets boss Dyche steered his side home against the Premier League leaders.

The new Toffees boss – this proud club’s 13th in 13 years if you include temporary appointments – was full of energy on the touchline, mirroring his newly inspired side on the pitch, as Tarkowski rose at the far post to power home a header from Dwight McNeil’s corner to spark deep joy among the club’s long-suffering fans.

“You cannot guarantee the outcome of any game, especially against the league leaders,” said a beaming Dyche afterwards, crucially adding, “I wanted a performance. The players have put a lot of respect in the changes we have tried to make but I told them: ‘Actions, that is the key.’ You clearly saw the response.”

You could tell the blue patch of this football-mad city was up for the fight, after such insipid performances under previous boss Frank Lampard – and it must be said – a worrying lack of organisation. Dyche swept all that away in a matter of days drilling his side at the club’s Finch Farm training ground. 

His new charges in blue flew into every tackle, covered every blade of grass and strained with every sinew. If such actions roused the home support into ear-splitting levels of noise, surely such intensity couldn’t have come as such a shock to the visiting table-toppers from North London. Alas, to many in red and white, the magnitude of controlled fury did seem to take some by surprise. 

As the match wore on Mikel Arteta brought on new signing Jorginho, for his debut. It was unfortunate that Tarkowski headed home a mere 60 seconds later. The Gunners boss also brought on Leonardo Trossard, raising creativity levels, but, crucially in such an attritional match as this, lowering the average height of the side considerably, a vital statistic, given Dyche appeared to be rousing the club’s famed “Dogs of War” attitude. 

Speaking after the match Gunners boss Arteta reflected on only his second league defeat of the campaign, saying: “We had loads of the ball, but we lacked that purpose and quality in the final third, we generated many chances. But then we conceded, and they slowed the game down and we struggled.”

Arteta, who side suffered their first league defeat in 14 matches, but their second 1-0 defeat in eight days, following their FA Cup fourth round exit at Manchester City last week, added: “Everton do this to every team, that is their strength with the height, the physicality is their strength, if you want to control the game against them you have to control this. We did not do that today.”

A huge spell of football now awaits Arteta and Arsenal in determining just how successful this season will become. Despite such an outstanding six months, being second best to a team that simply wanted it more, as they were here at grand old – and cramped old – Goodison Park, is simply not an option in future games. 

As for Dyche’s newly energised side that understandably awakened Evertonians – who deserved to thoroughly celebrate after the match, which they certainly did after such a poor season so far –perhaps a few of his players should be asking themselves why they failed to hit such heights under former boss Lampard.

Because the only explanation after witnessing such an impressive frenzy was that they had been cheating themselves previously, in not exerting as much effort as they did during their utterly deserved victory against Arsenal.