It wasn't all bad: The positives for Everton from 2025-26

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall of Everton celebrates with teammate Iliman Ndiaye.

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Understandably so, it’s all been pretty negative around Everton as of late. David Moyes is awful and needs replacing; the squad needs gutting and the club’s leadership aren’t showing enough ambition. Etc etc.

To an extent, elements of those complaints are all true, and the negativity is perfectly valid. You cannot fail to win your last 7 games of a season, especially when the lure of European football was right there until the penultimate match, and not expect fans to be disappointed and angry.

Plenty have suggested the entire season was a waste, and in fairness, the back half of it, when Moyes really began to go into his stubborn shell, is feeling like a squandered opportunity not only to achieve something tangible in the form of European qualification, but also learn more about this squad.

However, it really wasn’t all bad, and here’s some positives to take.

HILL DICKINSON STADIUM IS BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE HOME

People can dismiss it if they like, but moving was never going to be easy, and it took a while for Evertonians to get used to Hill Dickinson Stadium and their new matchday routines.

The players, too, needed time to adapt to new surroundings: There’s a reason why every Premier League team that has changed ground has gone on to accrue fewer points in their first season in their new home than they did in their last season at their former stadium.

A rough winter, littered with too many midweek night matches, did not help Everton’s cause, but when they got through it, those two victories over Burnley and then Chelsea — the milestone one — showed what the Toffees can do on home turf.

There were not enough joyful moments at the ground, and the club are almost certainly guilty of thinking a new stadium would be the plaster for Everton’s wounds — that is another cultural issue that must be stamped out. But, it does seem like Hill Dickinson Stadium is beginning to feel like home: Now, there’s no excuses not to make it a fortress.

NO MORE BOGEY GROUNDS

It had been 12 years since Everton won at OId Trafford, and they had never claimed a Premier League victory at Bournemouth. They had not won at Villa Park since 2016. Yet all of those runs came to an end in 2025-26.

All three victories came in typical Everton fashion, with the Toffees grinding out 1-0 wins in tough circumstances.

Idrissa Gueye’s bizarre sending off for slapping Michael Keane inside the opening 15 minutes at Old Trafford had been compounded by an early injury to Seamus Coleman but, after taking the lead through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s stunner, Everton showed plenty of resilience to drag themselves over the line, with Jordan Pickford coming up big.

They then limited a free-flowing Bournemouth team to just 0.5 xG as Jack Grealish’s deflected strike snatched victory on the south coast in early December, and in January, a makeshift Everton team shorn of some key players got the better of Aston Villa.

Getting those monkeys off their back was vital.

GARNER PROVES IT’S NOT JUST YOUNGSTERS WHO CAN IMPROVE

This time last year, I was of the school of thought that James Garner should probably be moved on. I always liked his effort and quality when he showed it, but too often he just felt like a workmanlike cog.

I’m very happy to be wrong.

In the last 12 months, Garner has come on to be Everton’s best midfielder. He really stepped up his game to match the levels of Dewsbury-Hall and Grealish, and he is now probably the first name on the team sheet when it comes to outfielders.

He should be going to the World Cup, but at least now he can get a full rest and then a proper pre-season, and come back next season with more fire in his belly.

At 25, Garner is heading into his prime, but he proved you don’t have to be in your early 20s to develop.

ARMSTRONG TAKES ANOTHER STEP UP

There has been plenty of rightful frustration around Moyes’s handling of Everton’s youngsters, and many fans believe Harrison Armstrong should not have been brought back from his loan spell at Preston North End — or, at least, he should have returned there at the end of January.

I think the latter argument is a good one. He came in to help Everton when they were down to their bare bones in January, but then needed to go back out and be back playing, week-in & week-out.

That being said, it will also have done Armstrong good to train alongside the likes of Garner, Dewsbury-Hall and Idrissa Gueye as he continues his development, and he did not get insignificant minutes.

Between the start of January, when Armstrong returned to Everton, and the end of the season, only one player who is younger than the 19-year-old played more minutes in the Premier League — that was Wolves youngster Mateus Mane.

Armstrong clocked up 527 league minutes, and Everton’s call must now be whether they send him back out on loan or keep him.

If they elect to keep him, then they must move on at least one of their other central midfield options, if not two, as they already need to strengthen in that area with a dominant presence.

But Armstrong should then be competing with one other player to be the next cab off the rank, and if he is at the club in 2026-27, needs to be clocking up around 1,000 league minutes at least.

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