Bournemouth is the place where Everton’s dreams come to die so it was only fitting a new year that holds so much promise for the club should start with defeat on the south coast.

Few places fill Blues supporters with as much dread as the Vitality Stadium and this was a case of new era, same old story. The scoreline may suggest this was a narrow defeat but it was anything but. Everton conceded once, David Brooks’ late cushioned back post volley the difference between the two sides, but they were indebted to Jordan Pickford and his defence for still being in this game by the latter stages.

For yet another match they offered nothing going forward. There was no anxiety in the home ranks as Bournemouth sought to close this game out. An Everton side that took 81 minutes to register a shot on target in the last game of 2024 failed to force Mark Travers into a single save during the first of 2025.

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Instead, Pickford made seven including impressive and important stops from Dango Ouattara, Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo. Everton boast a solid defensive record and have improved as Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski have grown into a partnership assembled late into this campaign because of injury. Both were very good again on Saturday. But even then, as with so many games across recent months, they have required lifesaving interventions from Pickford behind them.

It is hard to know where Sean Dyche goes from here in terms of bolstering a forward line that is not even miss-firing. This is one that is failing to start and watching it attempt to do so is painful.

Armando Broja started this game, Beto and Dominic Calvert-Lewin ended it. Iliman Ndiaye, the only player to show a glimpse of intent, had little support while Dyche opted to bring on 17-year-old Harrison Armstrong and play 39-year-old Ashley Young on the wing rather than turn to senior wide man Jack Harrison.

The Blues boss has chafed at the suggestion an attacking coach may help his side but has found no solution yet. He often refers to the long term issues on this front that pre-date his arrival.

There is merit in that but he has had two years to find his own way forward and now looks bereft of attacking ideas. His job could get harder not easier too, with Broja and Jesper Lindstrom both to be assessed for knocks that led to neither still being on the pitch in the second half.

Youssef Chermiti missed the game with a thigh strain and the return of Dwight McNeil, who again missed out with a knee injury, cannot come soon enough. Without Pickford’s saves and McNeil’s set piece prowess, this is a side engaged in a vicious fight for competitiveness that it is losing too often.

Bournemouth are a good team enjoying a wonderful season. Like Nottingham Forest, whose win at Goodison Park sent them second last weekend, they have beaten far better sides than Everton and will continue to do so.

But for all the resilience that was clear in the run of draws against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, Everton need to find a way to earn results against the teams who are not, as Dyche would describe, the top flight “super powers”. Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton and Hove Albion await. All have carved Everton open at will already this season but have vulnerabilities Dyche needs to find a way to exploit.

If he cannot then the question, already asked increasingly among some sections of the fanbase, is not whether he can earn a new contract in the summer but whether he can survive until then. He has led Everton to safety in far harder situations twice already and deserves more recognition for that than he often gets.

Yet while Everton remain in this attacking paralysis they will never be more than a shock Leicester City or Ipswich Town win away from a league table that looks more damaging than it already does. Everton could find the results that allow them to keep their heads above the water this month - they have done in the past.

Right now, they are treading water at best and Dyche needs either help in the transfer window or to accept he needs a change in approach to stop things looking worse before they have a chance to get better. If neither materialises then his position will increasingly come under threat from a new ownership that have been clear in their backing for Dyche but have invested too much in this club to leave survival to hope and chance.

Because at the moment Everton are providing little hope and creating no chances. Something needs to change otherwise this trip to Bournemouth will simply be repeated. Brooks’ winner was not inevitable but it was predictable. Pickford had already saved well from Semenyo and Ouattara in the second half despite the changes inspired by the events of the first.

They were necessary because when the half-time whistle was blown Everton were desperate for it. While they were not quite camped in their own box the Blues were buckling under the pressure from the hosts, who should have taken an early lead when Dean Huijsen flicked on a long throw and Ouattara got in front of Young. The winger skewed his shot though and his effort was tame enough for Pickford to react to.

Semenyo, the key architect of the south coast side’s dramatic comeback at Merseyside, had the ball in the back of the net soon after but was correctly adjudged to be offside. For all the promise of Ndiaye the side’s attacking efforts were summed up when Calvert-Lewin and Lindstrom collided while trying to meet a loose ball after Ndiaye went down tussling with Illia Zabarnyi.

In that brief moment of farce, Lindstrom picked up the injury that led to his early bath through his impact with a player who had only come off the bench because Broja had already left the pitch hurt.

In the last 10 minutes of the half Pickford rushed out to save at the feet of Kluivert and was relieved when Ryan Christie shot tamely after Kluivert stole the ball from Idrissa Gueye and fed the midfielder. The half ended with Huijsen’s back post header dipping just over the bar and with a whistle Everton were grateful to hear.

While the characters changed at the break, the story did not and the Blues were not quite so lucky at full-time. They could have no complaints either - they deserved nothing.