When Iliman Ndiaye walked off the pitch to a standing ovation in the 83rd minute with Everton two goals ahead, Sean Dyche might have expected similar treatment at the final whistle. Instead, he was greeted with a chorus of boos after three quickfire Bournemouth goals condemned the hosts to a third consecutive defeat to start the season. Premier League season.
On the day Everton Everton remembered that their legendary strikers Kevin Campbell, Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin had put them on course for what looked like an almost certain victory. Then Antoine Semenyo, Lewis Cook and Luis Sinisterra, the latter two in stoppage time, scored inside the six-yard box and exposed Everton’s flaws. “I’m talking about it because I don’t deal with the rough side of the game,” Dyche said. “I speak to the players all the time and that’s my biggest frustration from the moment I came in here. I’ve always said to them: ‘Whatever you learn from me, the fact is the game lasts as long as the referee makes it last, so you have to play every breath of the game. ’”
It was supposed to be very different. Ndiaye had lit up Goodison Park on the left flank, bringing verve and flair to a team stuck in the grind, and he left thinking the job was done. Bournemouth They barely played a part in the game, struggled to keep possession and created few chances in the first 87 minutes before three late crosses were deflected home.
Everton have not made a good start under Dyche. They took one point from their first four games last season and remain top of the table after conceding 10 goals in three games.
“It’s the most frustrating defeat of my career, because to dominate a game for so long and play so well and then come away with nothing is incredibly frustrating, I say that,” Dyche said. “As a manager, these are the ones that make you scratch your head. Part of the learning as a footballer is when you can smell it on the pitch when you’re active, not just the manager and the coaches, because obviously we can. We’re trying to give some feedback to put it right.”
For 86 minutes Everton were the only team in the game. They had been exciting in attack and Jordan Pickford had been a spectator, occasionally having to win the ball back from the fans after a deflected Bournemouth shot from distance. Ndiaye, Dwight McNeil and Jack Harrison were dynamic behind Calvert-Lewin, who scored his goal masterfully. Everton’s season had taken off and Goodison Park was bouncing back.
The first goal came from the veteran Dyche, when Harrison found Calvert-Lewin in the box and then passed the ball to Keane to slot home. The second goal was the product of a new set-piece, a vibrant move in which Ndiaye and McNeil combined on the edge of the box and the latter passed the ball to Calvert-Lewin. It was the best of both worlds for Dyche.
Everton were torn apart by three crosses in the closing stages, all of them pushed over or headed in from close range. After Semenyo slid in to score the first from Dango Ouattara's cross, Dyche took off Calvert-Lewin and brought on Beto rather than make a defensive change. Most teams might not have been worried about finishing the game off, but Everton panicked, memories of their crushing defeat Defeats against Brighton and Tottenham is back.
“It’s always the manager who takes responsibility,” Dyche said. “You expect your team to take responsibility when they’re on the pitch. But you need character and leadership and people who have been in the team and can smell it, almost.”
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Cook headed in the second goal from another cross to wreak havoc on those who had travelled for what looked like a miserable afternoon. It was all coming from the flanks and nothing was done to fix the problem, resulting in Justin Kluivert finding Sinisterra in the 96th minute. Many fans were almost too shocked by what they had witnessed to express their feelings, but many remembered to show their displeasure at the late collapse once the whistle blew.
For Bournemouth they get their first victory After two draws“It’s a very important win for us. I think it was the worst game we’ve played this season,” said Andoni Iraola. “We were the better team in the previous three games, but Everton were the better team today. I have to accept that they deserved to win.” Iraola said the same to Dyche. Not that that brings him much comfort.
