Late Tarkowski strike salvages a point for Everton at Vitality Stadium

As he and his Everton squad made their way back to Merseyside this evening, David Moyes will, no doubt, have been ruing not having three points in his back pocket while still being grateful that he wasn’t tasting a first defeat of 2026/27.

The Blues could have been well ahead by the halfway stage of this contest and toasting a third straight win in all competitions but Thierno Barry’s profligacy in front of goal and Đorđe Petrović’s brilliance in it combined to ensure they were goalless by the time Alex Scott swept home the opener in the 41st minute.

In the end, it took James Tarkowski atoning for allowing Evanilson to give him the slip so easily in the lead-up to Bournemouth’s goal by slamming home a stoppage-time equaliser to hand Everton a share of the spoils but it still felt like a bit of a let-down.

Until Jack Grealish’s deflected winner last season, this was a miserable fixture for the travelling Toffees but today it looked as though their team was going to build impressively on the wins over Crystal Palace and Preston over the past week.

Against the backdrop of bombshell reports the club were considering a £40m bid for emerging talent, Harrison Armstrong, David Moyes’s men carved out a number of excellent chances in the first half but came up against a goalkeeper in Petrović seemingly determined to have a career day. The Serbian pulled off a miraculous reaction save to deny Jarrad Branthwaite’s glancing header off a ninth-minute corner and then got down low to push a low Iliman Ndiaye effort around his post.

Then, after the keeper was unable to hold Tyrique George’s drive from the edge of the box, he spread himself well to prevent Barry from turning home the rebound, stopping the Frenchman’s shot with a strong right hand.

Bournemouth, who almost shot themselves in the foot with a giveaway that wasn’t punished as George drilled wide of the target, were enjoying the lion’s share of possession and Jordan Pickford had been required to be just as alert as his opposite number.

First he fisted the ball away from under his crossbar off a corner in the 13th minute and then denied the dangerous Rayan with his feet after the Brazilian’s driving run had taken him behind Vitalii Mykolenko and away from the ponderous James Garner.

Rayan then whipped a shot that rippled the roof of Pickford’s net and Justin Kluivert forced another save from the Everton goalkeeper as the Cherries probed for an opener of their own.

It came just as Everton’s positive start had dissipated and the visitors had become a little untidy in their play. Evanilson chased down a deep ball with Everton’s white shirts caught upfield in support of an attack of their own and he evaded Tarkowski long enough to play the ball in-field for the arriving Scott.

With the visiting defence backing off, the midfielder was then afforded the time he needed to feint one way and then fire towards the far corner of the goal, beating Pickford with a shot that also took a deflection off Mykolenko’s out-stretched leg.

The Blues would have a chance on a counterattack of their own in first-half stoppage time when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall picked Barry out with a precise ball but the striker sliced a great chance into the side-netting when he should have at least worked Petrović from the angle.

For all the promise of Everton’s first-half display, they were decidedly less inspiring in the second, although they came very close to levelling the match within minutes of the restart.

Garner, who was otherwise visibly short of fitness and well off the pace, stepped in smartly to intercept a vertical pass and found Armstrong who, in turn, played Barry in for what looked to be a certain goal but the striker couldn’t squeeze his shot under Petrović who got enough on it to make another vital stop.

A few minutes later, passionate appeals for a penalty from Dewsbury-Hall were waved away by referee Chris Kavanagh after James Hill had stepped across him in the penalty area and sent him tumbling to the turf but, otherwise, the Blues largely lost their impetus.

Instead, it was Bournemouth who looked the more likely to add to the scoreline. Pickford had to seize on Hill’s knockdown from a corner amid a clutch of bodies and then save from Rayan before Hayden Hackney, an earlier substitute for Garner, did superbly to block Evanilson’s goal-bound shot behind for a corner.

With five minutes left, it was Mykolenko’s turn to throw himself in front of strikes from Rayan and Scott to keep Everton in the game and that set up the grandstand finish from a late corner down the other end.

Hackney’s delivery was very deep and seemingly harmless until the ball bounced down off James Tavernier and fell invitingly to Tarkowski who rattled home an angled “centre-forward’s” finish to make it 1–1 and earn Everton a point.

Ultimately, while disappointing in the context of those first-half chances, a draw was probably a fair result on the day. The Blues were frustrating at times, incisive and threatening at others but lack a quality alternative for when it’s not Barry’s day because Beto was painfully inadequate when he came on with 20 minutes to go. And the lack of a natural right-back remains an embarrassing short-fall so close to the transfer window.

The Everton fans who packed the away end sang their message to the ownership that selling Armstrong would not be well received while Moyes made his own pointed comments afterwards expressing his thoughts on the matter.

With three days left before the deadline, the club have an awful lot to do; losing one of their brightest and best talents should not be part of the plan…