Arfield strikes last-gasp winner as Burnley beat Everton

Mark Scott

Scott Arfield: Celebrates his last-gasp winner

Scott Arfield grabbed a 90th-minute winner to earn Burnley a 2-1 victory over Everton in the Premier League at Turf Moor. 

The midfielder, only restored to the starting line-up because of an injury to Steven Defour, rifled in after Johann Berg Gudmundsson had struck the crossbar to move the Clarets to 10 points, all of which have been achieved in east Lancashire.

Sam Vokes had earlier punished a Maarten Stekelenburg error – a week after his two penalty saves against Manchester City – to give Burnley a first-half lead before Yannick Bolasie equalised with his first Everton goal.

Visiting boss Ronald Koeman had recalled Ross Barkley after dropping him against City last weekend and, in front of watching England assistant Sammy Lee, his first pass was misplaced.

He was not alone in wasting possession and after Dean Marney had given the ball away, a mix-up between Ben Mee and Michael Keane was almost capitalised on when Kevin Mirallas drilled at Tom Heaton.

The Clarets’ stopper came into this game having made a league-high 39 saves and he added another three inside 16 minutes by denying Romelu Lukaku and Barkley.

This was otherwise a scrappy contest disrupted all too often by the whistle of referee Mike Jones, who had little choice but to book Arfield for his cynical foul on Seamus Coleman.

Another challenge from Arfield drew a final warning from Jones and he made the most of it by playing a key role in the 39th-minute opener.

The Canada international latched on to Gudmundsson’s flick and went beyond Ashley Williams and, though the Welshman recovered to take the sting out of Arfield’s shot, Stekelenburg misjudged the effort and could only weakly palm the ball into Vokes’ path.

Sam Vokes scores Burnley

With the visitors having dominated possession, this had a somewhat similar feel to Burnley’s 2-0 win over Liverpool here in August, though the other top-flight club in Merseyside would eventually make a breakthrough.

Barkley was denied a penalty claim and Lukaku nearly reached Mirallas’ cross before Bolasie smashed in a 58th-minute leveller.

Burnley’s attack broke down at Vokes’ feet and when Mee was caught out trying to reach Lukaku, Everton had two men haring down the right. Bolasie took the onus upon himself to carry the ball forward and he rifled a right-footed finish low into the far corner.

Bolasie celebrates Everton

The visitors were buoyed by that and Lukaku would have been presented with a tap-in had Keane not nudged Seamus Coleman’s centre away from him.

Another delivery, this time from Bolasie on the left, was heading for the Belgian too but Heaton was able to claw the ball out before it reached him.

Bolasie was the best player on the pitch and an audacious attempt from 30 yards out needed Heaton’s intervention to help it over the top.

It seemed as if Sean Dyche’s side were happy to hang on for a point at that stage but, at the death, Arfield claimed a winner.

Heaton’s long free-kick eventually found its way to Gudmundsson and though he struck the crossbar, Arfield converted the rebound by drilling home first time into the far corner from around 12 yards out.