Six games in. Ten points. No defeats and through to the 4th round of the League Cup.
Everton sit 5th in the Premier League and, all in all, it’s been a positive start to the 2026-27 season — despite the chaos at the end of the transfer window, the poor squad-building, and the fact that The Friedkin Group are selling up. But the results don’t tell the whole story.
It’s not so much that Everton have been lucky. Opta’s expected points metric, which helps provide a rough measurement of how a team’s displays stack up compared to those around them in the table, has the Toffees in 8th, with 8.8 xPts. So really, David Moyes’s men are only 1 point better off than they “should” be, based on the underlying metrics.
Yet, at least for this writer, it really doesn’t seem to be clicking smoothly for Everton just yet. And at times against Hull City last weekend, it was tough to see just how Everton were wanting to play. We’re over 18 months into Moyes’s second stint in charge now and, in many ways, Everton are playing worse than in his first couple of months back.
Sure, some key players are either out of form or unfit — or both. James Garner has been nowhere near as sharp as required, but he did miss pre-season. The same can be said of Jack Grealish, who against Hull just slowed play down far too much. We all know how Grealish wants to control the tempo of attacks, but he has to release the ball quicker on occasion.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has had a poor start to the season but came into his own in the second half at the MKM Stadium — hopefully that is a sign of things to come. Thierno Barry scored, but missed a hatful of chances, and no player in the Premier League has missed more big opportunities (according to Opta’s measurements) than he has so far this season (10).
But Everton’s all-round play has too often been found wanting. Without Jarrad Branthwaite at the heart of defence, with the 24-year-old ludicrously pushed out to the left to slot in for Vitalii Mykolenko, the back line looked vulnerable against Hull. Yet even though Everton have kept an impressive number of clean sheets this season, it must be said that the defence — even with Branthwaite in at centre-back — has looked exposed.
The midfield balance hasn’t been right, and it’s really not clear why Moyes is persisting with starting Brennan Johnson over Tyrique George or Tyler Dibling, and then taking the Wales international off just as he starts to get into matches, when the space has finally begun to open up.
The performance against Ipswich Town before the break was so-so, as was the display against Wolves in the League Cup. Everton were too timid against Tottenham, when that was a game there to be won.
It just seems there is no real set idea at the minute. I’m sure that’s not true; I’m sure there is a plan and it is being worked on day-in & day-out at Finch Farm… but, when push comes to shove on matchday, either that plan is being shown up as a poor one, or the players aren’t executing it correctly.
And while Everton’s start has been decent, and one that the vast majority of fans would probably have accepted before a ball was kicked, they are now heading into a tougher run of fixtures. Chelsea, who have their weaknesses but do have a top-class attack, visit Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday. That is followed by a trip to Arsenal.
Then it’s a double header against Newcastle United, first at home in the League Cup on 29 October, then away in the Premier League on 2 November. Three days after that, former Everton boss Frank Lampard returns with his Coventry City team to round out this group of games before the next international break.
Now, Newcastle and Coventry are not teams that necessarily should strike fear into Everton, but the Toffees’ tiny squad is going to have to go through the wringer of 3 games in 8 days.
Christian Norgaard’s return to fitness could be a timely boost, but he is probably not going to be able to start until that game against Newcastle in the cup. Everton have to hold out hope that Mykolenko is back fit for the weekend, but even so, that does not excuse Moyes if his solution to that issue is to move Everton’s best defender out of position, to accommodate the leaky pairing of Michael Keane and James Tarkowski.
Moyes might have a small squad, but he far too often does not help himself with his team selections or in-game changes.
The start has been positive, but now it’s time for the players and the management to really step it up.