Sean Dyche clears up 'you were all desperate for Luton to win' claim after Everton secure survival

Sean Dyche has cleared up his comment that the wider media were ‘desperate’ Everton to remain in the Premier League relegation scrap after survival was secured.

The Blues confirmed Premier League safety with three games remaining following a 1-0 victory over Brentford. Idrissa Gana Gueye’s strike delivered a third successive Goodison Park triumph and they cannot be caught by Luton Town, who are 11 points adrift.

Everton have been hit with eight points for being guilty of two separate breaches of profit and sustainability rules. But they’ve rallied to not only avoid the drop but with matches in hand.

On the achievement, Blues manager Dyche told BBC Sport: “Pleased and proud. They’re a group of players who have had knocks all season. Four out of five clean sheets and wins with all the mounting noise after the Chelsea game is incredible. The mentality of the players is fantastic. Super pleased. Very proud.

“It’s been an exhausting week for many reasons, highs from the big win on Wednesday. The emotion that goes into that, I wondered how the players would respond.

“With xG we’ve been questioned for how many times we haven’t won games. It’s paid us back.

“They’ve had a massive week. There’s a lot of pressure and intensity on the week and can you do it again? Second half we controlled the game pretty well.”

Told that Everton were effectively safe before kick-off because there was an eight-point gap with Luton, Dyche replied: "Yeah of course, that old chestnut. 'You were safe and all that'. You were all desperate for Luton to win and us to lose. This isn't my first rodeo."

However, speaking at his post-match press conference, Dyche insisted that what he said was a joke and that he has massive respect for Luton and manager Rob Edwards.

“It was a joke quite obviously,” said Dyche. “They said what does it feel like, you were safe anyway and I said that old chestnut. I was joking, suggesting the media would have been more pleased and they would have gone ‘Ooooo’ [in regards to the relegation battle] and creates another story. It’s a joke. I’ve got nothing against Luton, they’ve done an amazing job and Rob is a really good guy. Nothing to do with anything.”