Lots of Everton fans have been left fuming as their beloved statue of Dixie Dean outside Goodison Park was lit up with a red flare, as the Merseyside club have since released an official statement on the matter as per their official website.

As per the statement, the Toffees are assisting the Merseyside Police with enquiries into the incident and have urged anyone that knows anything about what happened to contact them as soon as possible.

On a more positive note, the Blues also confirmed that, following inspection and cleaning of the memorial and the site as a whole, no permanent damage has been done to the statue or the floral tributes laid on the foot of it.

The statue itself represents EFC's greatest ever goalscorer, as Dean scored a quite incredible 60 goals in just 39 games for them in the 1927/28 season, and during the 1928 calendar year he netted a staggering 85 goals, according to the National Football Museum.

These supporters on Twitter were left fuming upon hearing the news of what happened, as Dean is a club legend and the statue and the memorials were a commemoration of both him and what he represented for Everton:

Evertonians, is Dean the greatest to have played for the club? Comment below!