Sean Dyche praised his players for sticking to their game plan as Everton held off title-chasing Arsenal with a battling display at the Emirates.
The Blues surrendered possession and spent much of the match defending in and around their own box but held firm with a disciplined performance to earn a useful point.
And for all that the hosts pushed for a breakthrough – and while Jordan Pickford made a series of excellent saves – there was a sense of satisfaction that Everton had forced Arsenal into playing to their own strengths.
After the match, Dyche acknowledged his tactics were based on the expectation his side would not see much of the ball and praised his players for their influence on the game in spite of that.
He said of the result: “I am pleased. It is highly unlikely you come to places like this and dominate the ball so therefore a big part of the game is what you do without it and I thought we were excellent. I thought the tactical understanding of the players and the delivery of it, the focus on it and the attention to detail and the consistency within a performance, was on show today and they were doing all the ugly stuff, the hard yards and the hard work to work as a team to make sure that we looked after ourselves and I thought they did that very well today.”
The result was particularly impressive given Everton were hammered 4-0 at Manchester United in their most recent away game at the start of the month. Asked whether he was more impressed with the resilience on show in north London because of that disappointment, Dyche responded: “I don’t think we were miles off at Old Trafford. People said I was mad saying that but you can’t legislate for three complete errors. I don’t think during open play there was that much wrong defensively. Back to today I thought the commitment from the players, the teams-hip, was certainly on show.”
The Blues boss reserved praise for a handful of players – crediting Pickford with a “big save” from Bukayo Saka early in the second half and adding: “You even had wide players for whom it is not natural to do that – Ili [Ndiaye] working super-hard in front of Myko [Vitalii Mykolenko] who was excellent, and Youngy [Ashley Young] on that side with Jack working hard. We know Jack has got quality and he didn’t quite find those moments but he worked so diligently and Jesper [Lindstrom] came on and did the same shift. These are good habits from this team and this group of players. We are getting players back fit and the feeling in the camp is strong again. We have got to keep doing that, of course, but this is a sixth clean sheet, it is not easy in the Premier League.”
