Sean Dyche explains why Dominic Calvert-Lewin didn't start for Everton and names trio who were 'terrific'

Sean Dyche has explained why Dominic Calvert-Lewin did not start for Everton in their loss to Manchester City.

The Toffees suffered a 3-1 defeat by the Premier League champions at Goodison Park. Jack Harrison opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half before Phil Foden bagged City's equaliser after the break.

Then Everton controversially conceded a penalty in the 62nd minute when Nathan Ake's shot hit Amadou Onana from point-blank range as he attempted to block the effort, with Julian Alvarez converting the spot-kick.

Calvert-Lewin was dropped to the bench against City, with Beto spearheading the attack. The 26-year-old was introduced immediately after the visitors went ahead and almost got Everton level when he met Harrison's cross but couldn't find the target. City then wrapped up their win as Bernardo Silva finished into an empty net after Blues keeper Jordan Pickford's clearance was charged down.

Calvert-Lewin was plagued by injuries in the past two seasons for Everton. And for that reason, it's why he was used as an impact substitute in the City reverse. Everton manager Dyche said: "You look at his run of games, the number of games we've had in December, his past and where he's come from and where he is now - trying to manage that and get him to full, total sharpness of the Premier League.

"Everyone thinks it takes three games, it doesn't. It takes a long period. With all these games, we've had to manage everyone. We are trying anyway. There are certain people who just keep knocking it out of the park. Jimmy (Garner) tonight [was] terrific, Tarki (James Tarkowski) terrific, Myko (Vitalii Mykolenko) terrific, Jarrad (Branthwaite) solid again, Dwight (McNeil) puts a shift in, Jack nicks his goal. We're asking a lot of these players and we're going to ask more because that's the nature of the fixture list. We're going to be asking more but when we get a chance for people to try to be right going forward, we're going to do that."