‘Asked them’ - Sean Dyche lifts lift on first Everton half-time team talk in Arsenal victory

Sean Dyche confessed he left the majority of his first Everton half-time team talk to his players in their victory over Arsenal.

Dyche's maiden game as Toffees manager couldn't have gone much better as they earned a 1-0 victory over the Premier League leaders.

Everton were full value for all three points. They had by far the better chances in the first half, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure spurning opportunities.

And with the game hanging in the balance afterthe interval, James Tarkowski's 61st-minute header delivered the Blues a first win since October.

Dyche had just five days to work with his new squad after succeeding Frank Lampard in the hot seat. And due to the amount of information he gave the players throughout the week, he mainly left the players to come up with the strategy to yield a win.

Dyche said: "There were a lot of things right about the performance. I asked them, I trust players and said what’s your feedback, what are you feeling, what are you thinking. Not always, sometimes it is my guidance. But today, I thought there has been a lot of work this week and they have absorbed a lot, trust me.

“We have condensed five weeks of planning, pre-season and meetings into five days. They have done brilliantly to absorb all that so I asked them what I thought in case there was any confusion into how we’re trying to get the game to play out.

“A couple of things came out, we corrected a couple of things but the main thing is you don’t get anything for one half. That was the biggest message. Strong half but it owes you nothing. The second half, it has to be, as soon as the whistle blows, we’re on it.

“Arsenal had a few pockets as you expect, have some good players and working to break the lines. Conor [Coady] cleared one off the line in the first half but I don’t remember too much - when Arsenal play they can really open you up - I don’t remember too much of that. I was pleased with that from a defensive point of view and we did open them up a couple of times with good quality, simple breaking high up the pitch, driving forward and getting good crosses into the box.”