Three nil win over Cherries must finally be springboard for Everton to progress

After so many false dawns over the years, Everton fans won’t be putting too much faith in Saturday’s victory over Bournemouth proving to be the beginning of a new start for the team.

But can the Blues and manager Sean Dyche use it to build some genuine momentum and try to turn around at last the seemingly relentless decline of this football club?

Everton produced a similar performance and an identical scoreline the last time they managed to notch more than a single goal at Goodison Park.

However ultimately, it proved to be a false dawn for the man in charge of the team then.

The man in question of course was Frank Lampard and the result I’m talking about was that 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on 22 October 2022, almost exactly twelve months ago.

Even the weather was the same with both wins coming on an unseasonally warm and sun-drenched Autumn pitch at the Grand Old Lady.

The surrounding circumstances were unsurprisingly familiar too with the Toffees team and manager coming into that match under pressure after three consecutive defeats.

Just like this campaign, results had not gone well from the start and the Blues side were struggling to find any form or consistency with too many points having already been dropped.

There were also questions about the manager’s tactics, just as Dyche has faced similar scrutiny this season as results have continued to go wrong.

On that day a year ago, Lampard’s players delivered a performance of intensity, energy and quality. Again, as we saw two days ago.

Tentative hopes for a turnaround in fortunes might have been hoped for by some Toffees supporters following such a result.

Of course as we know it didn’t prove to be the beginning of a new Everton.

And eventually after a series of dreadful results over Christmas and New Year, particularly at home, Lampard was sacked in January.

Now, the challenge is can Dyche and his players buck this trend – one we also saw with Lampard’s predeccessor Rafa Benitez – and find a way to harness this sort of form and replicate it with some kind of consistency?

History would unfortunately say no.

The truth is though the Toffees season and perhaps now also the club’s future, could well depend on the answer to this question.