Keane scores on his return as Everton cruise to win over Burnley
Much of the pre-match talk was dominated by Dyche’s return to Turf Moor 18 months on from his sacking that ended a nine-and-a-half-year allegiance with Burnley.
And it was one of the players who made the same switch as Dyche, Dwight McNeil, who almost opened the scoring inside five minutes when he headed Jack Harrison’s cross inches wide of the post.
It was hardly surprising to see Everton target set plays as an area to trouble the hosts, and that was the source of their opener as Amadou Onana headed home McNeil’s delivery.
It was a similar avenue for their second too, as another hopeful punt forward caused havoc in the Burnley defence, and at the second time of asking, Michael Keane fired home against his former club.
In truth, the Toffees looked like scoring every time they came forward, which was more testament to how poor Burnley were as opposed to how good Everton were. The Clarets did at least work one sighting of goal on the stroke half-time, but a last-ditch Ben Godfrey tackle denied Zeki Amdouni what was a certain goal.
It took until the 65th minute for Burnley to as much as work Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal, and when they did, the Toffees stopper was forced into a stunning save to deny Amdouni from distance.
Aside from that strike, Burnley offered precious little in an attacking sense, and when Kompany made a like-for-like defensive change, Turf Moor let their thoughts be known.
For the Clarets fans though, they should perhaps have been grateful not to have been even further behind when yet more Everton aerial bombardment led to Keane turning an effort against the post.
Sander Berge came close to grabbing a consolation when his effort rattled the crossbar, but that was as close as they came to salvaging a grain of pride.
It proved to be their former boss who had the last laugh, with Everton untroubled in seeing out their fourth win in succession, with the fact all four came with an accompanying clean sheet sure to delight Dyche.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Amadou Onana (Everton)
