Grealish Nets Winner As Brilliant Blues Win At Bournemouth

Jack Grealish's second-half strike earned Everton a richly-deserved 1-0 win at Bournemouth – ending the Blues' long wait for a first Premier League win at the Vitality Stadium.

Having not tasted victory at the home of the Cherries in eight previous attempts, the Blues – patched up following a number of injuries and a suspension to Idrissa Gana Gueye – impressed with a dominant performance on the south coast.

Grealish landed the decisive blow with 12 minutes remaining, firing into the bottom corner of the net from 20 yards via a deflection to send the 1,307 travelling Evertonians into raptures.

David Moyes made one enforced change – 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.

The Toffees started brightly and retained an impressive level of control throughout an opening period that lacked quality chances at both ends of the pitch.

Midway through the opening period, Jordan Pickford was called into action for the first time and comfortably beat away Antoine Semenyo's opportunistic effort after a free-kick into the penalty area fell kindly for the Cherries winger.

Moyes was then dealt a future selection dilemma with Tim Iroegbunam picking up his fifth yellow card of the season, meaning he will miss Saturday's visit of Nottingham Forest through suspension.

The closest Everton came to an opener came four minutes before the interval, when three corners from James Garner caused chaos in the hosts' penalty area.

The first of those was desperately flicked behind by Adrien Truffert; then Alex Scott glanced a defensive header on to his own crossbar from the next one and finally Garner's near-post delivery struck the post with goalkeeper Dorde Petrovic scrambling.

Against the run of play, the hosts had the ball in the net in what was the final action of the first half – but Junior Kroupi was flagged for a clear offside and the deadlock remained in tact.

Everton once again started the brighter of the two teams after the restart and went close again on 55 minutes.

Driving forward from midfield, the ever-influential Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – operating in a deeper midfield role on the night – found Alcaraz who, in turn, helped it on to Thierno Barry – and the Frenchman got their ahead of the onrushing Petrovic, only for the Cherries goalkeeper to get a crucial hand on his goal-bound effort to turn it behind for a corner.

Everton continued to bang on the door and finally got their opener on 78 minutes, when Grealish set himself and let fly with a shot that nestled into the corner via a deflection from 20 yards.

Grealish grabbed the Everton crest on his shirt and kissed it in front of the adoring travelling Toffees, who savoured their side's third win in four matches at the final whistle.