Burnley vs Everton: Scott Arfield calls on Clarets to turn Turf moor into fortress in effort to make history and stay up

They remain among the bookmakers’ favourites for relegation but Burnley’s victory over Everton on Saturday illustrated just why there is a quiet optimism building that Sean Dyche’s team might be ready to make history this term.

No Burnley side has managed back-to-back top-flight seasons in the Premier League era yet their record at Turf Moor offers hope that this year may be different. After all, when Burnley lost 3-1 at home to Everton on this corresponding weekend in 2014, they had managed only four points from their opening nine Premier League fixtures. Two years on they have ten points after adding Everton’s scalp to that of Liverpool and Watford, and Scott Arfield, scorer of Saturday’s last-minute winner, believes their ability to trouble teams at Turf Moor gives them a real chance.

“Last season in the Championship it was the main reason that we got promoted so it’s vitally important that we take that into this year,” he said. “It is a terrible place for teams to come – nobody wants to come here.

“We want to try and make it uglier at times and make it all about us. I don’t care how good they are technically, you get in the faces of people and you try to make it hard for them.”

Burnley have lost just two of 17 home league games in 2016 (with only seven goals conceded) and though they rode their luck at times in a game dominated by Everton, they had players willing to work tirelessly and throw their bodies in the way of danger to maintain that proud record. As a consequence, they made amends for the injury-time goal conceded in losing to Arsenal in their last home fixture.

“We watched that back,” added Arfield, “and it’s a game that sticks in my mind [for showing] that even the top players at the top clubs do the dirty side better. It’s fair to say there are going to be teams who come here and out-pass us but we have to make it as ugly as possible.”

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The next question for Burnley is whether they can start earning points away from home, beginning at Old Trafford next weekend when Dyche will have striker Andre Gray available again after completing his four-match suspension.

As for Everton, this defeat left a growing number of question marks against a team with European aspirations – from Maarten Stekelenburg’s goalkeeping for the first goal, scored by Sam Vokes, to their failure to translate their dominance into goals.

“We needed to take our chances,” said Gareth Barry of an afternoon where they converted one goal from 20 shots. The only real positive was the sight of Yannick Bolasie shoving aside Romelu Lukaku to score his first goal for the club and answer Ronald Koeman’s pre-match call for greater productivity from his other attacking players. It was not enough, though, and their early-season momentum has stalled after five matches without a win.