Moyes Reveals Key To Bournemouth Away Day Joy

David Moyes believes his Everton side produced a "tough performance" to end the Blues' wait for a Premier League win at Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night.

Jack Grealish's deflected late strike was the decisive blow as the Blues made it three wins in their past four matches – and back-to-back wins on the road, having ended a 12-year wait for a win at Manchester United only last week.

Since Moyes’ first away game back in charge of Everton in mid-January, only Arsenal (30) have won more away Premier League points than the Toffees (27) and no side has won more away games in that time than the Toffees (8).

"It was a tough performance," Moyes told evertontv. "It maybe wasn't our tidiest or the cleanest we've had, but I thought we were the better team in the game.

"But could we score a goal, or could they score a goal? I think whoever got the goal first then, it would have probably gone that way. Having said that, after getting the goal, we had a couple of other chances to get a second one. 

"But, look, I'm thrilled. Bournemouth is not a place where Everton have had a great record. So for us to go away, two away wins in the road on the bounce at the moment is really good."

Moyes made one enforced change for the south coast clash – and it was a significant one, with in-form Michael Keane unable to play through an injury as he did against Newcastle United three days previously, meaning a reshuffle at the back with Jake O'Brien moving to a central role and James Garner deputising at right-back, with Charly Alcaraz recalled to the starting line-up.

Discussing those tweaks – which also saw Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall impress with an outstanding individual display in a deeper central midfield role – Moyes continued: "The biggest thing is we're getting a couple of clean sheets, even with the defence and the players we had available today. We're so short of players at the moment, we're having to pull things together, but they're doing a good job. 

"I think we've shown good solidity and I think we're going to have to do that at times. 

"I wish we were scoring three and fours and making it look easier and we could be a little bit more open but we're having to shuffle things.

"Jimmy Garner went back to right-back again tonight because of injuries and I thought he was great against Antoine Semenyo for long periods of the game; the same with big Jake [O'Brien] at centre half – I thought he handled it really well.

"It took a lot of people to stand up. Tim [Iroegbunam] did great, especially in the second half, Tim stood up. So I'm really pleased. They've stuck at it and we're going to have to keep doing that. There were lots of positives to take from it.

"Hopefully we can keep it going. We want to take it on now to Hill Dickinson at the weekend. We want to get back into good form at home, that's what we really need to do now."

On Dewsbury-Hall, who was voted by Evertonians as Player of the Match on evertonfc.com's live blog, Moyes added: "He played really well and I thought he made a difference in the second half.

"The game got a little bit stretched and a little bit transitional, with both teams having a bit of a go and I thought, 'My goodness if we're not careful this might suit them better here.'

"I think Bournemouth have got the highest physical stats in the Premier League so I knew that it might not suit us if it got that way because we didn't have that many changes we felt we were able to make as well.

"So, yeah, [Kiernan] did a great job, playing a little bit deeper, but I thought he still was the one who was probably going to try and open them up with a pass."