Arfield’s late strike secures crucial win for Clarets
If Burnley are to preserve their Premier League status this season, they will need more afternoons like this one at Turf Moor yesterday – an afternoon when they fought for every ball, expended every ounce of energy and, when it matted, managed to summon enough quality to snatch three points at the last from technically superior opponents.
The match winner was Scott Arfield, scorer of a fine 90th-minute winning goal, yet there were plenty of other heroes in claret and blue, not least goalkeeper Tom Heaton, who made a key save from Yannick Bolasie as Everton pushed for a winning goal, and centre-backs Michael Keane and Ben Mee who each made vital interceptions to deny Romelu Lukaku.
The consequence was a third win of the season for Sean Dyche’s 14th-placed side, who have now accrued ten Premier League points – all of them at Turf Moor.
Given that they had lost to an illegitimate, injury-time Arsenal goal in their last fixture, the manner of this victory was all the sweeter. It was delivered by the right foot of Arfield, who drove the ball past a flatfooted Maarten Stekelenburg after a Johann Berg Gudmundsson shot had rebounded out off the crossbar in the final minute. “A sublime finish” was the verdict of a delighted Dyche. “Overall I like the fact we got back to what we are about,” he added. “We’re authentic in what we are. We are not trying to kid anything or brand ourselves or tell the world we’re going to play like Barcelona, we’re telling the world we’re going to give everything to continue to be in the Premier League.”
Defeat was a bitter blow for Everton given they, not Burnley had looked the likely winners after Yannick Bolasie had cancelled out Sam Vokes’s first-half goal with a thumping strike in the 58th minute. After a bright start to the season, Ronald Koeman’s men have won none of their last five matches and the Dutchman said: “It is very hard to take going home with no points, but that happens because that is football – football is not always what you deserve.”
No Burnley player did more to frustrate Everton than their England keeper Heaton. He had made more