Everton kicked off Carlo Ancelotti’s reign with a 1-0 win over Burnley.

Ancelotti officially took charge of his first game in the Blues’ hot seat after being appointed as Marco Silva’s permanent successor last weekend.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin settled a cagey encounter with the Clarets just 10 minutes from time when he met Djibril Sidibe’s cross with a diving header.

Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:

Carlo plays it cool

 

Everton managers, by and large, have celebrated their first wins with gusto.

Roberto Martinez preferred to raise his arm in jubilation while Marco Silva and Ronald Koeman both opted for the low clenched fist approach.

But Carlo Ancelotti is far more measured than the men that went before him and nowhere was that evident after Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s decisive header.

As the Blues’ backroom staff mobbed their new boss, he beckoned over Yerry Mina to issue some defensive instructions to help close out the game.

It was hardly ground-breaking from the three-time Champions League winner yet he is streetwise enough to know how precarious a one-goal lead can be.

Eight years away from England’s top flight did little to cloud Ancelotti’s nous when it comes to the art of winning; something that his predecessors lacked.

Sidibe finds a new calling

 

This season’s right-back debate has long been a foregone conclusion

Or so everyone thought.

Djbril Sidibe had comfortably surpassed Seamus Coleman in Everton’s defence to a point that the latter appeared unlikely to be a first-team regular again.

Ancelotti, however, chose to tweak things slightly against the Clarets to offer his side the best of both worlds with solid defence and fervent attack.

Eyebrows were raised higher than the Italian’s trademark when Sidibe found himself playing in an unfamiliar role on the right-hand side of midfield.

The end result proved highly effective with the World Cup winner regularly causing the visitors problems with driving runs and smart deliveries.

None were greater than the ball he floated in for Calvert-Lewin to throw his entire body towards and power the ball into the Park End’s net late on.

Sidibe may have found a new calling with a slight step out of his comfort zone.

Blues need to recapture cutting edge

 

Even after such a euphoric win, Everton cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

This cagey Boxing Day affair should have been far more of a formality were it not for the profligate nature of their forward line against Sean Dyche’s side.

Calvert-Lewin took the plaudits for his well-taken headed goal but lacked the finesse which became a staple from him during Duncan Ferguson’s reign.

Richarlison, too, will not look back on this game as one of his finest in a royal blue shirt after routinely staging one-man attacks which ultimately fizzled out.

A new manager invariably changes the dynamic of a team but it was telling that Everton’s best efforts before Calvert-Lewin struck came from defenders.

In the absence of their attacking cohorts, both Mina and Coleman tested Nick Pope’s reflexes with efforts from set pieces and long-range respectively.

Ancelotti is under no illusions Everton’s fortunes will not be transformed overnight and rediscovering a clinical edge is clearly part of the problem.

Sigurdsson must take chance to shine

 

Rarely has Gylfi Sigurdsson shown his true £40 million value for Everton.

Glimpses of the Iceland international’s potential manifested themselves at regular intervals in the past two-and-a-half seasons but rarely sustained.

With a new top-quality manager at the helm, it really is now or never for Sigurdsson to prove that he is still worthy of a prominent role at Goodison.

His first audition for Ancelotti was promising with a number of well-worked set pieces provided that only lacked a finishing touch from his teammates.

Sigurdsson may be a far cry from the swashbuckling playmaker at Swansea City but he will not have a better opportunity to roll back the years than this.

Now it is up to him to build on turning past glimmers into the real thing.