All anyone seems to want to talk about in the Premier League right now is entertainment.
Whether it’s the planned introduction of a Netflix-style streaming service abroad, or the over reliance on set-pieces. ‘Boring’ is the league’s hot new buzzword.
But, for as much as people clamour for it, style, pizzazz, panache, none of it equals points. For Everton, particularly at home, they’ll take substance over style every time.
For the best part of an hour this was no different. An attritional game with 11 Burnley players camped behind the ball and mistakes littering Everton’s attempts at breaking down the low block.
So when the groans kicked in early, it made sense. They were fair amid a flurry of mistakes and contagious levels of hesitancy in attack. Any possible entertainment had been sucked out of it.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored as Everton put away a sorry Burnley performance on Tuesday
That’s how it has been here for the most part, with Everton coming in to this winless in their last six home league games (D2, L4). They’ve not gone that long without a home win since October 1998 (9).
And, simply put, if they are to push for European football – they are eighth and two points behind Chelsea in sixth after this 2-0 win – that has to change. Turning it on on the road won’t be enough.
The style in which they do it doesn’t have to, though.
The opener, a bullet header by James Tarkowski from James Garner’s outswinging free-kick, was straight out of the playbook given that, since the start of September, nobody has scored fewer home goals from open play than Everton.
‘Our away form has been incredible but we haven’t got enough points here,’ Tarkowski said.
‘We have let ourselves down in some games here and conceded some rubbish goals and not taken out chances. Two goals and a clean sheet today, so we can’t be happier.’
It took until Burnley lost all hope, down just 1-0, for Everton to produce the moment of genuine quality when Iliman Ndiaye – who had a goal chalked off for offside minutes prior – cleverly played through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to delicately lift over an onrushing Martin Dubravka.
There were smiles then among home fans, relief too, as the dismayed away end chanted ‘we’re f***ing s**t’ and ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ to boss Scott Parker.
A home win, at last, for Everton and the European quest continues. For Burnley, what a total mess.
Burnley took 79 minutes to manage a shot on target and their second came in the 97th minute
WHY NOT HAVE A GO?
It’s been clear as day that Burnley would be heading straight back to the Championship for some time. Ranking 19th in home and away form didn’t require a genius to work that out.
The big question is: why not actually have a go at teams?
That’s not just outsiders asking that of Burnley, it’s their own fans too. Those in the away end booed towards the end of the first half when Burnley enjoyed a very rare attack forward, then stopped, killing all momentum.
They scored twice at Old Trafford, found the net at both Anfield and Stamford Bridge, and hit three at Selhurst Park and at Molinuex.
And yet this was truly abject as they got back on the bus with two shots on target – which drew some ironic cheers and the second of which arrived in the 97th minute – to the tune of 0.79xG (it was 0.12xG until stoppage time).
Coming up to play like this is as miserable as it is offensive. No wonder their own fans booed.
