Sean Dyche's Everton reign got off to a flying start as James Tarkowski's header handed Premier League leaders Arsenal a surprise 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park.
Everton looked revitalised in their first outing under the former Burnley boss, and it was two of his former Clarets players who combined for the winner – Tarkowski powering Dwight McNeil's corner home on the hour.
Arsenal were kept at arm's length by Everton during an unusually disjointed display, with the deserved victory dragging the Toffees – at least temporarily – out of the relegation zone.
Having suffered just their second league defeat of the season, the Gunners could see their lead at the summit cut to two points when title rivals Manchester City face Tottenham on Sunday.
Despite Everton starting strongly at a boisterous Goodison Park, Arsenal missed the first clear chance on the half-hour mark, Eddie Nketiah firing wide following excellent work from Bukayo Saka.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin somehow failed to slide home Amadou Onana's low delivery three minutes later as Everton threatened, before the unmarked Abdoulaye Doucoure headed McNeil's cross wide.
Conor Coady then made a vital goal-line clearance from Saka's volley, before Calvert-Lewin almost found the top-left corner with a looping header as an entertaining first half ended level.
Visiting captain Martin Odegaard blazed over from a good position after 59 minutes, and Arsenal were punished a minute later as Tarkowski found the bottom-right corner with a fine header from McNeil's right-wing corner.
Arsenal introduced January additions Jorginho and Leandro Trossard in search of a leveller, but the latter's 20-yard attempt, saved by Jordan Pickford, was as close as they came as their title hopes suffered a huge blow.
Will Still leaves Reims job with immediate effect
Will Still has left his role as Reims head coach with immediate effect, the Ligue 1 club announced on Thursday.
Still took over as Reims boss – initially on an interim basis – after Oscar Garcia was sacked in October 2022 and went unbeaten through his first 19 league games at the helm.
The 31-year-old was eventually handed the role on a permanent basis and led Reims to an 11th-placed finish in Ligue 1 in 2022-23, with his lack of a UEFA Pro Licence causing the club to be fined €25,000 per match until he began the course.
Reims are currently 11th in Ligue 1 again, though they are winless in their last five games and have lost each of their last three.
In a statement, the club said: "Following a meeting this morning between president Jean-Pierre Caillot, general manager Mathieu Lacour and head coach Will Still, it was mutually agreed that the two parties would not continue the sporting adventure together next season.
"In order to allow Reims to confidently look forward to the next year, it was also decided that Will Still and his deputy Nicolas Still would step down from their respective functions as of today."
Still was linked with the Sunderland job earlier this season and said in February that he would be open to joining an "ambitious" Championship club.
Dyche still demanding 'the hard yards' from Everton despite Premier League safety
Sean Dyche claimed putting in "the hard yards" is what ultimately got Everton over the line when it came to securing their Premier League status.
Everton beat Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Brentford in the space of six days in April to ensure their place in the top flight for another season.
That is despite two separate points deductions, worth eight points overall, having been dished their way this season. Everton are set to appeal the second decision at some point in May.
Last week's 1-0 win over Brentford saw Dyche's team move 11 points clear of 18th-placed Luton Town, meaning Friday's game against the Hatters no longer has so much riding on it for the Toffees, though Dyche will not let the hard work stop.
"I took over midway through so it is a bit different to last season. You try to re-model a group that's already been modelled, which is a challenge," Dyche told reporters.
"This season I think the biggest part of the success overall has been pockets of all different reasons. It is the work, work of the team I think we have got back to.
"We may lose it so much due to good performances when we were not winning but the hard yards as I call it, just doing the graft. The organisation, the will, the thirst and desire to work, to really work.
"I feel we still have good quality players here but it has to have a base to work from. You have to have a tactical understanding, you have to work, you have to do the hard yards, you have to cover the ground.
"Stats show for 60 minutes the ball is in play, if you're a player you're probably going to have it for one minute so what are you doing for the rest of it, for the other 59 minutes? You better be working because that's what the modern game demands."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Luton Town – Ross Barkley
Barkley – who made 150 league appearances for Everton between 2011 and 2017 – has scored just one goal in 10 Premier League games against sides he has previously played for in the competition. However, that strike did come in a match at Kenilworth Road this season, a 3-2 defeat to Chelsea.
Everton – Idrissa Gueye
Gueye played a crucial role in Everton's survival, scoring in the matches against Forest and Brentford. The former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has netted three times this season, and the Toffees will be hoping to tie him down to a new contract.
MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW
Everton are winless in nine away Premier League games (D3 L6) since beating Burnley 2-0 in December. Indeed, while five of the Toffees' first eight league wins this season came away from home, each of their last four have all been at Goodison Park.
Luton have beaten Everton twice this season, once in the league and once in the cup, with both of those 2-1 wins coming at Goodison Park.
The Hatters have won just one of their last 14 Premier League games (D3 L10), with no side picking up fewer points than the Hatters since the start of this run (six). Despite this, they have only failed to score in one of their last 23 league games, a 2-0 defeat at league leaders Arsenal last month.
This is Everton's first away match against Luton since a 1-0 win in the League Cup in October 2007, with Tim Cahill netting an extra-time winner. Their last league visit to Kenilworth Road also ended in a 1-0 victory back in November 1991 thanks to a Robert Warzycha goal.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Luton Town – 36.7%
Everton – 34.6%
Draw – 28.7%
Howard Webb admits Forest should have had penalty in controversial Everton defeat
Howard Webb admitted officials got one of the big decisions wrong in Nottingham Forest's controversial Premier League defeat to Everton this month.
Forest were beaten 2-0 at Goodison Park on April 21 but were left fuming that referee Anthony Taylor did not award a penalty despite three separate calls involving Ashley Young.
Following the game, Forest released a controversial statement on the social media platform X - formerly Twitter - that hinted at the fact VAR Stuart Attwell was a fan of relegation rivals Luton Town and should not have been involved in the game.
Webb was speaking about the incidents on the Mic'd Up TV programme and claimed that while the first decisions were "really subjective calls", the third one , which saw Young challenge Callum Hudson-Odoi, should have resulted in a penalty for Nuno Espirito Santo's team.
"The referee waves away the penalty appeal. The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question, 'Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?' and came to the conclusion it wasn't," Webb said.
"He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.
"But we would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement for himself in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would've happened."
"The game is played by human beings, it's officiated by human beings. And obviously our job is to try to ensure that we have a positive impact on the game by identifying correct decisions on the field. This wasn't one.
"But of course they're humans making judgements as well, so we always are trying to reduce the number of errors that we that we make."
Webb also said referee Michael Oliver will have been "really disappointed" to have not originally spotted a foul by Declan Rice on Ben Davies as Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-2 in the North London derby on Sunday, with a VAR intervention eventually awarding a spot-kick.
"I know Michael [Oliver] will be really disappointed," added Webb.
"He had a really good game. He's one of our top referees and one of the top referees in the world."
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