Saturday’s win over Arsenal was a vintage Everton performance. Sean Dyche had only had a matter of days working with the players and finding out about the issues at the club, but the response was nothing short of emphatic from the group.
It made for a great drive home from Goodison Park, having that conversation with your family over who was the Man of the Match. That’s a debate we haven’t been having for a long time. In recent games we've been trying to pick a Man of the Match for someone who has done two good passes, but contrast that with coming out of the ground on Saturday with three points, a clean sheet and discussing who you think the best player was on the day. That’s the headache we want as fans.
Everything was against us going into the game and you were wondering if we had the tools to get something out of it. Arsenal are absolutely flying, we’ve had huge issues off the pitch and, on the pitch, we’ve been very poor. I wanted a reaction and to see blood, sweat and tears on the pitch. If we got beaten by a top Arsenal side after doing that, then fair enough. We got the win in the end and Dyche’s comments after the game about the minimum requirement being maximum effort is exactly what you want to hear - he is setting his standards from the get-go.
