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Leicester City and Everton (Source - Twitter)
After Everton defeated Bournemouth on the last day of the 2022-23 Premier League campaign, to maintain their top-flight status, Leicester City, as well as Leeds United, were demoted into the Sky Bet Championship.
With a 1-0 victory over Bournemouth, Abdoulaye Doucoure struck the most important strike of his career and perhaps Everton's history to prevent the team from going down. Everton had their destiny in their own hands going into the final day, and Doucoure's incredible goal made sure that Leeds and Leicester would not be able to overtake the Toffees and advance to safety.
Sean Dyche’s statement after taking Everton to safety
After leading Everton out of danger on the final day, manager Sean Dyche emphasised that the team was not a broken one. The English manager spoke to Sky Sports and said, “Obviously it means a lot. To me, I took over what they called a broken club. It's not broken. There are certainly cracks but it's not broken. We've shown that fighting spirit we needed. But I've told the players they shouldn't be in this state and we've got to learn. Next season is going to be a big season. It's a magic day but at the end of the day we shouldn't be in this shape.”
Dyche then spoke about the goal that guaranteed them safety and how Doucoure has been a guiding force for his side. He said, "Doucs' has been a shining light in that and he scores a cracking goal. He might have mis-hit it. But we have to learn from this experience. You're only a big club if you give big club performances and you do big club things. This is a big club but we've got to get it back to being there off the pitch and not just on the pitch."
He then concluded by speaking about how significant belief can be for a team. He said, "We needed belief in the group and I think we've done that well. As a staff, we've maintained that we've kept them believing. They've seen people dropping, we've got no full-backs, no forwards, but we've kept going.”