If Everton end up falling just short of some milestone of relative over-achievement in the Premier League this season — perhaps a Europa Conference League berth or top-10 finish — they will look back on missed opportunities like this and the disappointing points dropped against beatable opposition.
Wolves may be on course to record the lowest tally of the modern era but for most of this post-Christmas bore-fest at Turf Moor, Burnley were comfortably the worst side the Blues have faced thus far. And yet, if it weren’t for the slenderest of margins, Scott Parker’s charges might have pinched all three points.
Late substitute Zian Flemming was eventually flagged offside in what would have been a razor-thin decision had the Video Assistant Referee been required to review it but the Dane’s shot striking the base of Jordan Pickford’s post and skidding across the face of goal rendered it moot.
Nevertheless, the Clarets will be kicking themselves for not having grabbed the win in a game that was desperately short on quality for long periods but which threw up sporadic moments of quality, not least an excellent dinked pass by Marcus Edwards that was squandered by Jacob Bruun Larsen and a couple of crucial stops from Martin Dubravka to deny both of Everton’s strikers getting their second goals of the season and .
That statistic stands out like a sore thumb where the Toffees’ are concerned and it goes a long way to explaining how David Moyes’s men weren’t able to grind out a victory that would have put them back in touch with the pack chasing Europe.
Shorn of their four best outfield players and their creative lifeblood — Jack Grealish’s absence through illness compounded the loss of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye — Everton were forced to rely on a starting XI that has just four goals between them in the campaign so far.
Beto was handed what has become a rare start as David Moyes sought to mix things up up top but the Portuguese toiled ineffectively through the first hour before almost breaking the deadlock with a moment of magic while his replacement, Thierno Barry, was frustrated by the Burnley goalkeeper 13 minutes from the end of the 90.
The truth is that Everton simply didn’t create enough against a poor side and could have few complaints about only coming away from this part of Lancashire with a point that means they drop back into the bottom half of the table after three games without either a goal or a win.
With Grealish appearing to struggle through the last few matches with a thigh problem, it was no surprise that he was missing from the line-up when the teams were announced 75 minutes before kick-off but it turned out instead that he had been battling a virus this week.
That left Everton down to the bare bones but it meant that Dwight McNeil could be given the platform to shine on his favoured left flank and Dibling an opportunity to impress in what was only his second league start since his big-money move from Southampton.
Unfortunately, McNeil fell rather flat on his old stomping ground and while Dibling had his moments, all too often he faced the same problem that has blighted Grealish at Everton, namely double-marking and a lack of options around him.
Tim Iroegbunam was industry personified and James Garner provided the urgency and composure that was needed throughout the side but overall it was painfully evident that this is a team heavily reliant on individual brilliance rather than any coherent playing style or philosophy running through the squad.
On the evident of the first half, it felt as though even with their skeletal options, Everton would have enough to claim the points. They survived an early scare when Pickford missed his punch off a corner and James Tarkowski lunged to block in front of his goal before Lucas Pires fired the rebound wide from the edge of the box.
Then, apart from an off-target Armando Broja header in the 25th minute, the bulk of the chances fell the Blues’ way and after Beto had failed to steer a Vitalii Mykolenko header towards the target, he came within a whisker of scoring. The mercurial Charly Alcaraz led a breakaway out of his own half and fed Dibling on the right and when the winger cut back onto his left foot and drilled a deflected ball across goal, it skipped over Beto’s out-stretched leg and behind for a corner.
More lovely footwork by Dibling saw him sweep the ball into the side-netting from the angle in the 21st minute and, eight minutes later, his hooked ball from the byline found Alcaraz in the centre but the Argentine could only plant a header into Dubrakva’s arms.
Perhaps the best chance of the first period fell to Alcaraz 10 minutes before the break but opting to take a touch when a first-time finish was by far the better option, he gave the defender in front of him the time to charge down his belated shot and the opportunity went begging.
The intensity required from Everton never really materialised after half-time and after Garner had blazed well over when the keeper could only flap a McNeil corner to him in the edge of the area and Alcaraz had also skied a Dibling cross into the stands, Burnley started to ask questions at the other end, with Edwards heavily involved.
First, the 27-year-old popped up in space in the box but tried to lay it off to a team mate rather than shoot and Iroegbunam cleared. Then, with a chipped ball over the defence, he put Bruun Larsen into the clear but he cleared the crossbar with a side-footed effort. Finally, when he was picked out on the right as Burnley counter-attacked, the ball ended at the feet of Bruun Larsen on the other side of the area but Jake O’Brien made a crucial block to divert the eventual shot behind.
Having weathered that brief squall, Everton thought they’d scored with 61 minutes gone. The ball broke to McNeil in the Clarets’ area and when his right-footed attempt was blocked and Iroegbunam screwed the ball across the six-yard box, Beto cheekily flicked it goal-wards with his heel but Dubravka readjusted and pawed it wide with a tremendous reaction save.
Alcaraz bent a shot off target from the edge of the box and then tried to test the keeper with an acrobatic over-head kick that just lacked sufficient power to really trouble him before Bashir Humphreys’ shot at the other end was blocked and he could only sweep the rebound inches wide of the post.
Beto making way for Barry felt like only a matter of time, particularly after Moyes had readied both the Frenchman and Merlin Röhl on the sideline with an hour gone and the switch almost paid immediate dividends.
Picking the ball up outside the area, Barry powered past his marker and drove a low shot across goal that was searching out the far corner when Dubravka got decisive contact on it to divert it wide.
With six minutes left, VAR Timothy Wood was called upon to make a determination on Craig Pawson’s refusal to award a penalty when Dibling’s powerful effort struck Jaidon Anthony’s arm but he ended up concurring with the on-field official that the proximity of the incident was sufficient grounds not to award a spot-kick.
But if there was to be a winner, Burnley looked the more likely in the closing stages as Everton failed to mount a late charge of their own. Anthony threaded a pass in behind the defence for Flemming that the Dane rolled off the upright before the lineman raised his flag for offside, Lesley Ugochukwu belted a wayward strike high and wide and O’Brien had a late header saved at the near post before Pawson blew for full-time.
Defeat would have been a damning indictment of an Everton side that too often lacked belief and resorted to hopeful balls forward over planned methods of attack on the deck; as it is, a goalless draw still felt like a poor result against a team that will do well to stay up this season.
Of greater concern is how this group of players can navigate the next four weeks without the likes of Ndiaye and Dewsbury-Hall, particularly if Grealish is either sidelined or hampered by injury, and there is no help in terms of incoming transfers.
Nottingham Forest will pose a much sterner test on Tuesday evening and even the home games beyond in the New Year could be hard watches on the basis of this showing.