Everton edge out Manchester City in incredible Premier League statistic after Bournemouth win

Everton’s win over Bournemouth saw them overtake the reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in terms of expected goal this season.

A three-goal victory at the weekend was much-needed for Sean Dyche’s side after previously failing to earn a positive result in any of their previous four home games.

Goals from James Garner, Jack Harrison and Abdoulaye Doucoure released a lot of tension surrounding the club and helped to erase the awful memory of their dire home defeat to Luton Town the week prior.

Now it might sound crazy to think Dyche’s side could be considered better creatively at any point, but as it stands, that rings true. According to the xG Philosophy, Everton have created more xG so far this season (16.43) than Manchester City (15.66). It shows that Dyche’s side have been creating high quality chances but have been failing to take them, and their current league position is down to that and nothing else.

It is a mind-bending statistic given that City boast the attacking riches of Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and many others, plus the fact they scored 94 in the league last season, but it says a lot about the two sides’ current status and performances this season.

Take Everton, they managed 34 shots in the 1-0 defeats to Wolves and Fulham in the opening weekends of the Premier League season and created chance after chance before conceding late on.

The story for them is their failure to take chances so far this season; Dyche has been forced to say phrases like ‘expected goals’ and ‘taking our chances’ after most games this season and Bournemouth was like a sweet release as they scored three time at Goodison for the first time since beating Crystal Palace at home by the same scoreline under Frank Lampard in 2022.

Attacking reinforcements such as Jack Harrison, Beto, Youseff Chermiti and Arnaut Danjuma now support a fully fit Dominic Calvert-Lewin and now they stand a far better chance of converting chances.

And that’s key to winning more games, moving away from another relegation battle and, as Dyche repreatably says, ‘changing the story’.