Sean Dyche furious with Idrissa Gueye in Everton loss v Arsenal – Sky Sports pundit
Sean Dyche will be “fuming” with Idrissa Gueye as a first-half mistake gifted Arsenal their second goal against Everton at the Emirates on Wednesday night.
As the fourth official was raising the board to signal first-half stoppage time, 33-year-old Gueye was caught in possession on the edge of his own box.
Gueye seemed to think the referee was stopping play, allowing Bukayo Saka to nick the ball off him and touch it to Gabriel Martinelli, who scored.
Former England international Bothroyd couldn’t believe how Gueye switched off and believes he’ll be in Dyche’s bad books for his error.
Speaking on Sky Sports News on Wednesday night (1 March, 08:32pm), Bothroyd said: “Idrissa Gueye was dwelling on the ball. He was taking so long and Saka’s just taken it off him. It’s gone to Martinelli and he’s just placed it in the near post.
“It was a great finish but this is just poor [by Gueye]. He’s not playing to the whistle, he’s dwelling on the ball and Arsenal have just taken the ball off him. Saka’s nipped the ball off him, it’s gone to Martinelli and it’s a great finish.”
Bothroyd added: “2-0 just before half time as well. Dyche is going to be fuming with that because it’s so avoidable. All he had to do was just stay switched on, pass it and go again.”
Relegation battle
Dyche is our manager but we’re still very much in a fight against relegation from the Premier League this season.
It was always going to be hard to go to Arsenal and return home with anything worth shouting about – but we don’t half make it harder for ourselves for no reason.
Seriously, what was Gueye doing?
It’s such a cliche but it’s a schoolboy error to not play to the whistle. Every player should know this – especially a 33-year-old who’s played at top clubs in England and France.
The Senegal international really let his side down with that error because we were still in the game at 1-0 down.
Gueye’s mistake pretty much opened the floodgates against Everton. It was so bad.
Before that, we were defending quite well and had the odd chance going forward as we tried to shock Arsenal for the second time in a matter of weeks.
Alas, it wasn’t to be and we’re still very much in a relegation battle.