After successive battles against relegation in recent seasons, Everton’s 2024/25 campaign is already close to crisis.
Sean Dyche’s side have been beaten by Brighton and Tottenham in their opening two games, conceding seven goals without finding the back of the net.
The Toffees enjoyed a restorative 3-0 Carabao Cup win over Doncaster Rovers in midweek and looked to have finally turned the page when Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin established a 2-0 lead against Bournemouth at Goodison Park on Saturday.
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Things remained that way until the 87th minute, when Merseyside witnessed a denouement unprecedented in Premier League history.
Antoine Semenyo pulled one back for Bournemouth before Lewis Cook and Luis Sinisterra capitalised on Everton’s total collapse in added time.
After the match, Opta confirmed that Everton had become the first Premier League team to lose a match while leading by two goals with so little time remaining.
Everton broke an unwanted record earlier today:
They led by more than two goals until the 87th minute, the last time a team has led by more than two goals in a game they subsequently lost in Premier League history. https://t.co/KOpvBrMJ4I
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) August 31, 2024
What did Sean Dyche say about Everton’s defeat to Bournemouth?
“They score, I think, on their second shot on target and then they don’t do the basics, the ugly side of the game, and we did that all day. [cost us]”, Dyche told Everton’s official website.
“I always tell them the main thing is to win tackles, headers and runs. We didn’t do anything. They just passed forward all day, and they passed forward over and over again, and we had to deal with that all day, until the last moments when everyone is waiting for someone else to do it.
“It’s not just the defensive unit that’s higher up the field. People can get in there, put pressure on it, kill the play, but we didn’t do that. Therefore, we suffered from not doing the absolute basics and the difficult yard cycle.”
INCREDIBLE. IMPOSSIBLE. CRAZY.
BOURNEMOUTH SCORES THREE GOALS IN THE LAST MINUTES TO COMPLETE A HISTORIC COMEBACK AGAINST EVERTON. ? pic.twitter.com/kzsLBN3pGa
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) August 31, 2024
Dyche added: “You watch the game and, as I just explained to them, when you see the goals coming back, watch your body language. It’s not enough, it’s as simple as that. You’ve done your job, you’ve seen the game through to the end, but the job is never done until the final whistle.”
“We have players overlapping in the last minute of the game and you’re like, ‘Why?’ You don’t need to do that, you just stay organized and we see the game through, you played really well.”
