Everton 1-0 Brentford: Three talking points

Everton sealed their Premier League survival with a win over Brentford.

Idrissa Gueye broke the deadlock shortly before the hour mark by arriving in the Gwladys Street End’s penalty area to produce a rifled first-time effort.

Sean Dyche’s side leapfrogged their visitors into 15th and are now 11 points clear of the relegation zone heading into this season’s final three fixtures.

Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:

A perfect week secures safety

The euphoria of Wednesday’s long-awaited Merseyside derby win meant that this game was invariably likely to be an underwhelming affair by comparison.

Everton risked a classic case of ‘After the Lord Mayor’s show’ during a third home game in the space of six days when every ounce of sweat was spent.

But Sean Dyche’s lucky tracksuit ensemble saw a hat-trick of wins as his side belatedly replicated the energy from Nottingham Forest and Liverpool’s visits.

This encounter with Brentford is unlikely to go down as one of the classics yet the aesthetic was the least important factor with maximum points secured.

A double-figure cushion on the Premier League’s bottom three places is all that counts from this result with three games of the current campaign to go.

The final month of Goodison’s penultimate season will be a more relaxing affair compared to previous years when survival bids went down to the wire.

Had it not been for back-to-back point deductions, long-suffering Evertonians would be breathing a sigh of relief far sooner than the final week of April.

… but Blues still made to sweat

Mathematically, Everton are officially safe from the threat of relegation.

Someone at the Premier League clearly did not receive the memo before Saturday’s evening kick-off as they confirmed Sheffield United’s demotion.

Defeat at Newcastle United condemned Chris Wilder’s side back to The Championship; confirmed by a tweet sent from the top flight’s official account.

But the post also erroneously claimed that the demotion was ‘pending’ the outcome of the Blues and Forest’s appeals against their point deductions.

Even if that were true, the Blades would still require an 11-point overhaul to drop Forest into the bottom three and a 21-point swing to unseat Everton.

That’s before you even factor in both clubs’ superior goal differences.

Clearly top-flight chiefs were trying to cover all bases in the now-deleted tweet but Everton were briefly left to sweat over another financial fair play twist.

Has Gueye earned a new deal?

As Goodison prepares for a 71st consecutive season of top-flight football, the debate on which players should be allowed to stick around is now underway.

No fewer than six first-team figures are set to be out of contact this summer including Seamus Coleman, Andre Gomes, Dele Alli and Idrissa Gueye.

In the past six days, the latter has offered a compelling case to be retained after two decisive strikes to help Everton’s successfully beat the drop.

The veteran Senegalese may be turning 35 in the opening months of next term but his role for Dyche’s side extends beyond rare goalscoring feats.

Like Abdoulaye Doucoure 12 months prior, Gueye has become an invaluable commodity in the engine room which came to real fruition this past week.

The enforcer’s homecoming has not always gone to plan, falling flat last season as the blue half of Merseyside geared up for another fight for survival.

His expereince, however, is again shining through with diligent displays that helped wrestle control fo the midfield battle, most notably against Liverpool.

Whether Everton can afford to shoulder the financial burden of keeping Gueye while in the twilight of his career is something only Dyche can answer.