Carlo Ancelotti made a winning start as Everton manager as his side edged past Burnley 1-0 at a packed and passionate Goodison Park.
The 60-year-old Italian, who won the Premier League and FA Cup double as Chelsea boss in 2009-10, took over at Everton last week and received a fantastic reception from the home fans.
Burnley, after two successive wins, nearly scored inside three minutes but Jay Rodriguez’s header was cleared off the line by Yerry Mina.
Away goalkeeper Nick Pope did excellently to keep out Mason Holgate’s close-range shot and also a later effort from Djibril Sidibe.
???? | That match-winning moment… #EVEBUR
Happy Boxing Day, Blues! ✊pic.twitter.com/LWA2OeCPbu
— Everton (@Everton) December 26, 2019
But the hosts finally broke the Clarets’ brave resistance when Dominic Calvert-Lewin produced an excellent diving header, which went in off the inside of the post, from Sidibe’s cross.
The win extends Everton’s unbeaten league run to five matches and takes them up to 13th, one place below Burnley.
Ancelotti’s Everton fight hard to win
It is just over eight-and-a-half years since Ancelotti was sacked in a corridor at Goodison Park, not long after the Toffees had beaten his Chelsea side 1-0 in the final game of 2010-11. He was dismissed after a season without silverware, even though he had won two trophies 12 months earlier.
Since then, he has managed Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Napoli before making an unexpected return to England following Everton’s decision to sack Marco Silva earlier this month.
Ancelotti has won three Champions League titles and four domestic championships in a glittering managerial career and was given a rapturous standing ovation from the home fans, whose side have not won a trophy since the 1995 FA Cup.
He was joined on the touchline by Duncan Ferguson, who had been in charge for four league games as interim boss and remains part of Ancelotti’s coaching team.
When Silva was dismissed, Everton were in the bottom three, but they were rejuvenated under Ferguson as they beat Chelsea and drew with Manchester United and Arsenal.
And Everton continued their recent revival by finally breaking down Burnley, who defended excellently for 80 minutes.
But the visitors were undone when Dwight McNeil sloppily gave the ball away near the left flank, dispossessed by Gylfi Sigurdsson. He released Sidibe, whose cross was met by Calvert-Lewis’s diving header to spark joyous scenes among the home fans.
