Ever since David Moyes began to prove himself as a manager of substance he has been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Sir Alex Ferguson. In seeing his team beaten by Burnley yesterday, Moyes emulated his fellow Scot, but not in a manner he will choose to recall with any great fondness.

Moyes would have expected his Everton team to have taken note of and learnt from Manchester United’s defeat at the hands of a side that finished fifth in the Coca-Cola Championship last season before taking the scenic route to the Barclays Premier League via the play-offs. He would also have drilled into his players a need to match Burnley’s desire and commitment if they were to collect their first points of the campaign. In the event, neither happened and Everton became the second notable scalp to be taken by Owen Coyle’s side in less than a week.

Being thrashed by a resurgent Arsenal at home on the opening day of the season is bad enough but, scoreline apart, this was arguably worse because the short trip to Burnley presented Everton with the ideal opportunity to respond in the right fashion. That they failed to do so will be of great concern to their manager, particularly given that they had not previously lost to a promoted side since 2005.

The hope will be that the imminent lancing of the boil that is Joleon Lescott, who is expected to join Manchester City today in a deal worth £22 million, will restore team spirit and galvanise the sense of collective fortitude that has been such a feature of Everton since Moyes took up his post at the Merseyside club. But last season’s beaten FA Cup finalists and fifth-best team in the country are yet to rediscover the hunger that made them such obstinate opponents.

Burnley have no such worries on that score. What they lack in proven quality, they are more than making up for in toil and desire. Far from being cowed in the face of some of the country’s biggest clubs, they are revelling in the situation and finding innovative solutions on the occasions when their technique is, understandably, found wanting.

The decisive goal, scored by Wade Elliott, was a case in point. Initially, Elliott failed to control Chris McCann’s left-wing cross. Rather than allow his immediate disappointment get to him, though, the midfield player calmly recovered his composure and curled a shot past the despairing dive of Tim Howard, albeit with the assistance of a deflection off the outstretched foot of Phil Neville, who was filling in as an emergency defender because of Lescott’s impending departure.

The void left by Lescott will be a considerable one and Moyes admitted after the match that he does not see Neville as a long-term answer in that position. For all his professionalism and versatility, Neville lacks the height and positional play to reinvent himself as a centre back at this stage of his career and Burnley could have exploited this weakness before taking the lead when Martin Paterson missed two presentable headed opportunities, the first of which hit the crossbar, while the second went wide.

A belated switch to 4-4-2 after the replacement of Marouane Fellaini with Jô preceded Everton’s most productive spell of the match and had it not been for a penalty miss by Louis Saha, the visiting team could have escaped with a point. It would have been particularly ill deserved given that the spot-kick was awarded by Phil Dowd, the referee, after Tony Hibbert had dived in the box.

Had Saha converted the penalty instead of striking it wide then Coyle might have been tempted to become the second manager in the past eight days to question Dowd’s eyesight after Rafael Benítez did similar in the wake of a 2-1 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

With justice having been served by Saha’s faulty radar, the Burnley manager took the decision in his stride and refused to allow it to spoil his and Burnley’s latest magic moment. "We’ve got points on the board and that means we can go to Chelsea in our next game with no fear," Coyle said. "We’ve had a great week but that’s all it’s been and there is so much hard work ahead of us. I’m delighted with the start but that’s all it is."

His opposite number could not afford such positivity. The Everton manager’s task now is to use the funds from the sale of Lescott to replenish his squad, something he believes will not be easy. "It definitely needs freshening up and we will try and do that this week," Moyes said. "Time is against us, though. If the money had been offered to us in June it would have made it a lot easier."

Burnley (4-1-4-1): B Jensen 7 T Mears 6 C Carlisle 7 A Bikey 6 S Jordan 4 G Alexander 8 C McCann 7 W Elliott 7 R Blake 6 S Fletcher 6 M Paterson 6 Substitutes: C Eagles (for Paterson, 80min), F Guerrero (for Blake, 84), S Thompson (for Fletcher, 86). Not used: D Penny, C Kalvenes, K McDonald, J Gudjonsson. Next: Chelsea (a).

Everton (4-4-1-1): T Howard 6 A Hibbert 5 P Neville 7 J Yobo 6 L Baines 6 L Osman 6 J Rodwell 7 T Cahill 6 S Pienaar 6 M Fellaini 4 L Saha 6 Substitute: Jô 6 (for Fellaini, 67min). Not used: C Nash, S Duffy, D Gosling, J Wallace, J Baxter, J Vaughan. Next: Wigan Athletic (h).

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