New Everton manager Sean Dyche has revealed his side are sweating on Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s fitness for the Merseyside Derby after he picked up a hamstring injury in the Toffee’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal on Saturday.
Sean Dyche got off to the perfect start as he managed his side to a 1-o victory of table toppers Arsenal. James Tarkowski’s header was enough to secure all three points and inflict Arsenal’s first defeat in the Premier League since September.
However, on a negative note, Calvert-Lewin picked up a hamstring injury which has been a repeated issue for the forward this season.
The England international was substituted mid-way through the second-half and manager Sean Dyche has confirmed it was due to a knock suffered on the hamstring that has caused issues previously.
Asked about Calvert-Lewin’s physical condition in post-match press conference, Dyche said: “We will have to wait and see. I don’t think it is a drastic one but he needs to settle it down so we will probably give it two days before we scan it just as a precaution at this stage.”
Calvert-Lewin, who has netted just once in a dozen appearances so far this season, spurned at least three good opportunities to score against the Gunners but Dyche has already been speaking with the England international about trying to rediscover the kind of form that saw him bag as many as 21 goals in all competitions as recently as the 2020/21 campaign.
He said: “We just had a chat with him to see where he is at, see how he is feeling about things.
We said just give us a chance to work with you and you will get stronger. We talked about the basic principles, we showed him the goal reels and said ‘look where you are where you have scored goals.’ “We showed him the goal map and said to him ‘look where you are: get between the sticks.’ Sometimes you can strip things out of the game, you can do all the analytics, but sometimes it is just a case of being in the right place, it gives you a better chance to score.
“So sometimes you have to strip all of it back and go right you work hard, work from the front, and when we get the ball you get between the posts, and you drive in there. Don’t just stand there, drive in there and I thought he did that (against Arsenal).”
