Arfield leaves it late to send Toffees packing
SCOTT ARFIELD’S 90thminute winner gave Burnley more home comforts as they defeated Everton at Turf Moor.
The midfielder, only restored to the starting line- up because of an injury to Steven Defour, rifled in after Johann Berg Gudmundsson had struck the crossbar to move the Clarets to 10 points, all of which have been won at home. Visiting boss Ronald Koeman had recalled Ross Barkley after dropping him against City last weekend and, in front of watching England assistant Sammy Lee, his first pass was misplaced.
He was not alone in wasting possession, and after Dean Marney had given the ball away, a mix-up between Ben Mee and Michael Keane was almost capitalised on when Kevin Mirallas drilled at Tom Heaton.
The Clarets’ stopper came into this game having made a Leaguehigh 39 saves, and he added another three inside 16 minutes by denying Romelu Lukaku and Barkley.
This was otherwise a scrappy contest disrupted all too often by the whistle of referee Mike Jones, who had little choice but to book Arfield for his cynical foul on Seamus Coleman.
Another challenge from Arfield drew a final warning from Jones and he made the most of it by playing a key role in the 39th-minute opener.
The Canada international latched on to Gudmundsson’s flick and went beyond Ashley Williams and, though the Welshman recovered to take the sting out of Arfi el d’ ss hot, Stekelenburg misjudged the effort and could only weakly palm the ball into Sam Vokes’ path.
With the visitors having dominated possession, this had a somewhat similar feel to Burnley’s 2- 0 win over Liverpool here in August, though the other topflight club in Merseyside
would eventually make a breakthrough.
Barkley was denied a penalty claim and Lukaku nearly reached Mirallas’ cross before Bola sie smashed in a 58th-minute leveller.
Burnley’s attack broke down at Vokes’ feet and when Mee was caught out trying to reach Lukaku, Everton had two men haring down the right. Bolasie took the onus upon himself to carry the ball forward and he rifled a right- footed finish low into the far corner.
The visitors were buoyed by that and Lukaku would have been presented with a tap- in had Keane not nudged Seamus Coleman’s centre away from him.
Another delivery, this time from Bolasie on the left, was heading for the Belgian too, but Heaton was able to claw the ball out before it reached him.
It seemed as if Sean Dyche’s side were happy to hang on for a point at that stage but, at the death, Arfield claimed a winner.
Heaton’s long free- kick eventually found its way to Gudmundsson and though he struck the crossbar, Arfield converted the rebound.