Everton’s unbeaten start to 2026-27 came to a shuddering halt with a whimper on Saturday, with Chelsea cruising to a 2-0 win at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Frankly, Xabi Alonso’s team will probably not have an easier half all season than they had in the second period. And while some of Everton’s players must hang their heads in shame, this was a David Moyes disasterclass.
I have often defended Moyes, and there’s no point thinking he is going to change or that Everton are going to change managers. It isn’t happening, especially with this current leadership and ownership.
And, taking in the wider context, this was the first defeat of the season. However, on the flip side, Everton have now won just 2 of their last 14 Premier League matches dating back to the end of March, after, ironically, that 3-0 win over Chelsea — which is probably the high point of Moyes’s second stint in charge.
This result, though, had been coming, and that second-half performance was as bad as they come. And Moyes is to blame. He got every single thing wrong.
The starting XI was hardly inspiring, seeing Merlin Röhl line-up on the right wing, but Moyes has explained his rationale and Everton were very much in the game before the break. Yet, from half-time onwards, Moyes simply failed to deliver.
Everton once again came out from the break and conceded straight away. Where’s the focus? Where’s the attention to detail? And while the players take their blame for that, it’s on the management to ensure it doesn’t keep happening. But from then on, Moyes froze.
Sure, he made a quick change, with Tyrique George coming on for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who was again exposed defensively for Chelsea’s opener. In fairness to Moyes, he had George ready to come on pretty much straight away, yet the ball then didn’t go out of play for almost 5 minutes. Typical Everton. The only shock was that Chelsea did not double their advantage during that time.
Yet Moyes then simply let the game drift. Chelsea were in complete control. George was making zero impact on the right, and he was hardly any better when he moved over to the left later on.
But the big issue was in midfield. Jordan Henderson, at 36, was running the show and had the freedom of the park, meaning Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers were able to just drop into space. James Garner was dismal — again — and Harrison Armstrong needs a spell out of the starting XI.
Yet Moyes sat on his hands, even when the game was clearly crying out for Hayden Hackney to come on and provide some impetus in possession.
Jack Grealish had a decent first half, but was totally isolated in the second. If you don’t want to turn to Hackney, why not try something different and move him inside, and sacrifice one of Garner or Armstrong?
Moyes then let it drift through an 11-minute stoppage for Emiliano Martinez’s head injury, and still nothing. Still no sign of anything from the bench.
And then, to cap it all off, when Moyes finally did make changes, in the 85th minute (albeit, with 11 minutes of stoppage time still to come), he turned to a clearly unfit Christian Nørgaard and an ineffective Brennan Johnson, who came on, for some bizarre reason, on the right wing.
Where was Hackney? Where was Tyler Dibling, when Everton were crying out for some creativity and spark? This was absolutely terrible from Moyes, and he should be criticised for it.
Everton now head into a tough run, and while Newcastle United and Coventry City are not teams to fear, those fixtures come in quick succession on the back of the Toffees heading to Arsenal next weekend.
Everyone’s allowed a bad game or two, but Moyes simply must be better than he was in that second half. Because that, David, was atrocious.