Dyche: First time we’ve come from behind in Prem to win
CHRIS WOOD was the toast of the Clarets with his late headed winner against 10-man Everton as Burnley triumphed for the first time in the Premier League after going behind.
Everton had seemed to be in the driving seat when Cenk Tosun scored his first goal since moving from Besiktas for £27million in January.
But Ashley Barnes levelled, 11 minutes into the second half, before half-time substitute Wood headed home the winner, with 10 minutes remaining.
Things went from bad to worse for the Toffees when captain Ashley Williams was given a straight red card for flinging his arm at Barnes’ neck after 86 minutes.
Boss Sean Dyche believed his side were worthy victors as they won for the first time in 12 league games to cement seventh in the table and make history by coming from behind to triumph.
He said: “It’s the first time, and I said to the players at half-time, ‘Look, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain as no one thinks you can come back from being down because you haven’t done it historically.
“So we said, ‘Get your shoulders back, go and play, take it on’ – and we did.”
It lifted the Clarets to 40 points, something Dyche described as a “big marker”.
“That is not an easy thing to do,” he added. “If you think, it took a whole season for us to get to that last season.
“I have spoken clearly about signs of improvement and signs of developing and signs of moving forward, year on year – and that has to be a sign. The good thing is it takes the monkey of everybody’s back.”
Burnley had made the brighter opening in front of the watching England boss Gareth Southgate, but Everton should have gone ahead when Gylfi Sigurdsson picked his way into the Clarets’ six-yard box and slid the ball to Theo Walcott, who got himself all tangled up and put the ball way over.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson fired a low ball across the face of goal, which Jordan Pickford got a hand to. But, despite the Clarets’ pressure, it was the visitors who went ahead.
Turkey international Tosun had not made an impact in his previous four outings for the Toffees, but he made no mistake at Turf Moor, heading Seamus Coleman’s flick-on into the bottom corner. Pickford then did his hopes of a trip to the World Cup in Russia no harm when he produced a flying save to deny Barnes’ goalbound header. Pickford started the second half with two fine saves, diving to his left to push Aaron Lennon’s drive round the post before he clawed Ben Mee’s header away from the resulting corner. But he was eventually beaten, Matt Lowton’s delicious low ball dissecting the defence and finding Barnes, who coolly fired into the centre of the goal. Sigurdsson fired across the face of goal and he will have rued that miss when Wood put the hosts ahead, holding off former Claret Michael Keane to head home Gudmundsson’s corner. Then came Williams’ sending-off as the afternoon ended on a damning low for the Toffees, boss Sam Allardyce pointing to their inability to convert chances.
“I think the second half was about Burn ley playing forward, with Woodsy up front with Barnes, and us not coping with the more direct style of play they chose to use and getting the ball forward,” he said. “So that gave them the first goal and put more pressure on us.
“What do we do? We decide not to deal with the corner correctly and allow a free header for Woody to put it in for a very disappointing defeat.
“To crown it all off, our captain has got himself sent off, which, unfortunately, I can’t defend.
“So what started to look like a bright afternoon ended up very disappointing indeed and one where we have to say to ourselves, why did we lose that? It was us, that is why we lost it, we have only got ourselves to blame.
“Again, it is another away defeat we could have avoided.”
Burnley have equalled their best-ever Premier League points tally in a single season (40 – level with 2016-17), with nine games remaining in 2017-18.
Everton have now lost 19 competitive games in 2017-18, their most in a single season since 2005-06 (21).
This is the first time that Burnley have won a Premier League game after going behind under Sean Dyche (61 games – W1 D12 L48).
Dyche took charge of his 250th game as Burnley manager in this game (W98 D73 L79) – the first manager to reach this landmark at the club since Stan Ternent (June 1998-May 2004).
Everton have lost their last five Premier League away games and have enjoyed just one victory in their last 23 on the road (D9 L13).
Cenk Tosun is the 10th Turkish player to score in the Premier League and the first to do so since Jem Karacan on May 4, 2013 (for Reading v Fulham), 1,764 days ago.
Ashley Barnes scored in consecutive Premier League games for the first time since December 2014.