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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Chris Beesley

Sean Dyche gives Everton hope as worrying goal statistic emerges

Sean Dyche Everton Aston Villa EPL Wigan Athletic Stoke City Sunderland Crystal Palace David Moyes Dominic CalvertLewin

With long-suffering Evertonians requiring a timely pick-me-up at a sobering moment when they’re left wondering just who is going to get the goals to keep their side up, they should seek solace that if anyone is going to dig them out of this hole then Sean Dyche really is the man.

Stick with me here, all will be explained in good time as this correspondent tries to offer a ray of sunshine akin to the striking beams that peeped through low in the late winter sky above Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon, sometimes making it difficult for players and spectators alike to see what was in front of them. Unfortunately, after a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa that returned Everton to the bottom three after a reprieve of just a week, all that many Blues can see ahead right now is the terrifying spectre of the prospect of going down to the Championship.

Everton were the better side for the first hour of play, carving out the better opportunities but after the visitors went ahead courtesy of a contentious penalty decision and the hosts were forced to chase the game, they were unable to offer anything in reply. So just what crumbs of comfort can be offered up right now for a success-starved supporter base being fed an attrition diet of goals?

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It’s been obvious all season that the Blues have been finding it difficult to score and you don’t need to be a football genius to work out why. After leaking 66 goals last term, Dyche’s predecessor Frank Lampard focused on trying to tighten things up at the back but while he introduced a new centre-back pairing in the shape of James Tarkowski and on-loan Conor Coady in front of England number one Jordan Pickford to bolster his defence, the side has also been shorn of attacking outlets.

Talisman Richarlison was sold to Tottenham Hotspur last summer, Dominic Calvert-Lewin continues to struggle for fitness and in turn form on the occasions that he has been able to get himself on the pitch and then in January, Anthony Gordon, the team’s joint top scorer in the Premier League, albeit with a paltry three goals, pushed through his move to Newcastle United. On face value, the £45m accrued for a player who wasn’t even a regular starter towards the end of his time at Goodison Park looked like a potentially shrewd piece of business if it was to be ploughed straight back into the squad, enabling essential strengthening in key areas to take place. But, alas, not a single new face arrived at Finch Farm in the winter window.

Owner Farhad Moshiri had boldly proclaimed that month that if Everton needed a striker, they’d get one. There was of course misfortune with a move for Arnaut Danjuma being hijacked by Spurs and the Dutchman subsequently spending most of his time sat on the Londoners’ bench alongside the aforementioned Richarlison, but director of football Kevin Thelwell had already supposedly been spending months identifying potential targets and the club still had a week before the deadline passed to do a deal for an alternative.

Although Dyche insists that Everton officials worked hard on making signings in the final days of the window, like his side against Villa, their efforts ultimately came to nought. Which begs the question as to whether the Blues can really avoid what would be a first relegation for 72 years with so few goals in their side?

Thankfully, history tells us that it is indeed possible. Indeed, last season was one of just eight out of 30 previous Premier League campaigns in which there wasn’t a team that stayed up averaging less than a goal a game.

Some 41 teams have retained their Premier League status since 1992/93 scoring fewer goals than their number of matches played. While most of them have narrowly escaped the drop, some like Everton (34 goals in 38 games) in 2005/06 – when David Moyes’ side also accrued a record two-thirds of their points total in the second half of the season – have actually finished well up the table in 11th place.

Middlesbrough twice finished 12th (1995/96 and 2001/02) netting just 35 goals, while Wigan Athletic (34 goals in 2008/09), Stoke City (34 goals in 2009/10) and Crystal Palace (33 goals in 2013/14) all repeated the Blues’ trick of coming 11th. Going back to the Premier League’s inaugural campaign in 1992/93 in the days of 'one nil to the Arsenal', George Graham’s Gunners finished 10th in a 22-team division with just 40 goals from 42 games, but this was the era in which even the mighty AC Milan were able to win Serie A’s Scudetto the following year with a mere 36 goals in 34 matches.

What is concerning for Everton is that their 17 goals from 24 fixtures so far is an average of just 0.71 per game, which is less than the 0.74 that Huddersfield Town posted in 2017/18 when they netted the fewest goals (28) of any team to have stayed up in the Premier League. But as already stated, if anyone can keep the Blues’ heads above water in such difficult circumstances, it seems as though Dyche is the best-equipped person for the job.

In that same 2017/18 seasons that their rivals from across the Pennines, Huddersfield avoided the drop with just 28 goals, Dyche’s Burnley became the highest-placed team in Premier League history to have netted less than a goal a game. The Clarets found the net 36 times in 38 matches but were still able to qualify for the Europa League by finishing seventh, the club’s best finish since 1973/74.

The powers that be at Everton appear to be guilty of a dereliction of duty in not providing the team with sufficient firepower – in the two subsequent summers after Everton struck just 34 times in 2005/06, Moyes twice broke the club’s transfer record to bring in strikers Andrew Johnson for £8.6m and then Ayegebeni Yakubu for £11.25m – but as the Blues’ class of 2022/23 are stuck trying to eke out single goal successes, in Dyche they trust.

Full list of teams who have stayed up in the Premier League averaging less than a goal a game

1992/93: Arsenal 10th/40 goals (42 games)

1993/94: Manchester City 16th/38; Ipswich Town 19th/35 (42 games)

1994/95: None

1995/96: Middlesbrough 12th/35; Southampton 17th/34

1996/97: None

1997/98: Newcastle United 13th/35; Wimbledon 15th/34

1998/99: Southampton 17th/37

1999/2000: None

2000/01: Derby County 17th/37

2001/02: Middlesbrough 12th/35; Fulham 13th/36; Sunderland 17th/29

2002/03: None