Everton choked away a halftime lead to Burnley as Jay Rodriguez and Maxwel Cornet scored second-half goals in a thrilling 3-2 affair that adds even more intrigue to the Premier League’s relegation picture.
Nathan Collins put the hosts ahead at Turf Moor but Richarlison converted a pair of cleverly-won first-half penalties as Everton took a 2-1 lead into the break.
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Anthony Gordon and Vitaliy Mykolenko made the most of contact in the box and Mike Dean awarded the former a penalty in real-time before using VAR advice en route to the latter’s call.
But Cornet got his goal and Burnley pulled to within a point of 17th-place Everton, who has a brutal run of fixtures left on its PL docket. Watford is three points back of the Toffees and Norwich -- Burnley’s weekend opponent is seven back of safety.
WATCH BURNLEY vs EVERTON FULL MATCH REPLAY STREAM - LINK
Burnley vs Everton final score, stats
Final score: Burnley 3, Everton 2
Scorers: Collins (12'), Richarlison (pen. 18', pen. 41'), Rodriguez (57'), Cornet (85')
Shot attempts: Burnley 13, Everton 16
Shots on goal: Burnley 4, Everton 4
Possession: Burnley 51, Everton 49
Three Four things we learned from Burnley vs Everton
1. Huge day for Watford and Norwich City: The 17th-place team on the Premier League table losing to the 18th-place team will give an awful lot of hope to the teams in 19th- and 20th-place. Everton and Burnley both had multiple matches-in-hand on Watford and Norwich and that figure goes down to one while also sincerely draining both clubs ahead of weekend matches. Norwich will be especially thrilled as its about to host Burnley, while Everton is hosting a rested Manchester United. If Watford can get something in Saturday’s visit from Leeds, the relegation picture is going to get even more interesting. We could leave the weekend with three teams within four points of 17th (and Watford still faces Burnley and Everton).
2. Richarlison a live wire: This is the best we’ve seen from the Brazilian in some time, and we’re not simply talking about Richarlison converting two big penalties for Everton. He was also denied an overhead kick goal by Burnley keeper Nick Pope on a day he took six shots, registered two key passes, and completed all five of his dribbles.
3. Is that it for Frank Lampard at Everton? The jury is still out as to whether Frank Lampard as a manager is anything other than a legendary England player and whatever that brings to a squad, but this was a big, big test and his injured and suspended Toffees came close to passing it. How will the Everton brass view this game: As an injured team coming back from 1-0 down away from home but losing late, or as a superior group of players blowing a 2-1 lead and only scoring from soft penalties?
4. You watching Gareth? If England boss Gareth Southgate was watching this latest example of Nick Pope being superior to Jordan Pickford, well, that’s not great news for the latter.
Man of the Match: Maxwel Cornet -- A goal and an assist for the ex-Lyon man. It’s still wild to consider that Cornet is a Claret, but what an inspired investment from a team that has to be very careful where it lays its transfer dollars.
Collins’ happy return puts Burnley ahead
Nathan Collins only has 13 appearances for the Clarets since arriving from Stoke City, but the 20-year-old Irishman would’ve been antsy to deliver a strong performance after a late straight red card against Brentord a couple of weeks back.
His back post deposit of Maxwel Cornet’s corner kick was composed and critical, and may be a huge goal if the former Potter isn’t to head back to the Championship.
Desperate times call for desperate acts
Few can debate that there was contact from Burnley on both of Everton’s penalties, but even fewer would contend that Anthony Gordon and Vitaliy Mykolenko didn’t hit the deck with vigor at the first sense of said contact.
It’s that time of year!
Jay-Rod scores a huge one
Charlie Taylor absolutely roasted Jonjoe Kenny but still had plenty of work to do in order to spot a man who’s scored a lot of big goals in his career.
Enter Jay-Rod.