And so to Bramley-Moore Dock for a first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, the new Merseyside home of Everton, for Saturday night’s league fixture.
The eponymous Thomas Bramley-Moore was a politician and merchant who made his early money in Brazil off the back of the early-19th-century slave trade when he was simply Thomas Moore. He assumed the Bramley and the hyphen six years after returning to Britain in 1835, and one year before becoming chairman of Liverpool’s dock board. He oversaw the expansion of Liverpool’s northern docks, which led to one being named after him.
Goodison Park, Everton’s home since 1892, is now history, too, at least for men’s senior football. Everton’s women’s team now plays there.
The links between the club and Hill Dickinson, a Liverpool law firm dating back to 1810, long predate the stadium naming rights deal. One predecessor firm was Cuff Roberts, with Cuff being Will Cuff, who was Everton’s secretary (what would now be called its manager) at the time of our first visit to Goodison in April 1905. He went on to become the club’s chairman between the First and Second World Wars.
Cuff was elected president of the Football League in 1938, a position he held until he died in 1949. One of his first actions was to require all players to wear numbered shirts. Our club was a pioneer in this regard, having first worn them — black numbers in a white square sewn onto the back of the jerseys — in a match against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough ten years earlier.
The Hill Dickinson has a capacity of 52,888 seats, making it the eighth-largest football stadium in England and the 11th-largest in Britain. Like many contemporary sports venues, it is designed to be the focal point of an urban regeneration scheme.
There is a drone fly-through video at the end of this preview for those unable to attend the game, which also marks the first anniversary of AS Roma’s US owners, the Friedkin Group, adding Everton to their portfolio.
Moyes
David Moyes’s return in January after more than a decade away, during which his managerial career looked as adrift as the club he was returning to, has, however, brought a degree of desperately needed stability to both club and career.
After replacing Sean Dyche last season, Moyes got a team that had needed Houdini-like powers to escape relegation in recent seasons to a 13th-placed finish. In the summer, he overhauled his squad, if nothing else, to reduce the age of what is still the joint-oldest squad in the league. Ten of the 27 players who made first-team appearances last season are gone.
Along with nine new players, Moyes has replaced Dyche’s pragmatic, old-school 4-4-2 football with more controlled, possession-based play in the modern manner. He still wants a compact defence that is difficult for opponents to play through; Everton’s 4-2-3-1 collapses into a 5-2-3 when the opposition has the ball. Yet, despite Jordan Pickford’s eye for a long raking clearance to spring a counterattack, Moyes’s Everton no longer invariably goes long as did Dyche’s.
The opposition
Pickford falls into the same set of irrationally irritating people as Chelsea’s Cucarella, but England’s No. 1 keeper is a big reason that Everton has not conceded as many goals as the stats suggest they should.
In front of him, there should be the two big men in the centre of the defence, James Tarkowski and the much courted 23-year-old Jarrad Branthwaite. However, Branthwaite has a thigh injury that will sideline him until the New Year.
The veteran Michael Keane will likely fill in. I say veteran, although at 32, he is a year younger than fellow ex-Burnley man Tarkowski. Both were good enough to be on the fringes of the England team when they were younger men.
Left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko is an established Ukraine international with 51 caps. Club captain Séamus Coleman is also gone in the fetlock, so Ireland international Jake O’Brien is likely to start at right back.
The Africa Cup of Nations will deprive Moyes of two key midfielders, Idrissa Gueye, who anchors the double pivot, and Iliman Ndiaye, who has been a revelation since switching wings to accommodate Jack Grealish, on loan from Manchester City, on the left.
Moyes has also lost Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a £25 million summer signing from Chelsea and joint top scorer with Ndiaye, to a hamstring injury sustained last weekend, while Merlin Rohl, an attacking midfielder who joined on a season-long loan from Freiburg in the summer, has been out for several weeks. Grealish, who is also nursing a dodgy hammy, is 50/50 to be fit.
That will probably mean Moyes lines up young Brummie Tim Iroegbunam alongside Birkenhead-born James Garner, who is one yellow card away from suspension, in the engine room in front of the back four, but will struggle to assemble an attacking midfield ahead of them.
Options include the teenage Tyler Dibling, who was bought from Southampton for £35 million plus add-ons in the summer, for the right wing, another Burnley retread, Dwight McNeil, on the left, and Carlos Alcaraz, a 23-year-old Argentine who joined from Brazilian club Flamengo in the summer, in the centre. Dibling, Alcaraz, and McNeil would form a respectable PL midfield, but it is a level below Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall, and Grealish, and at least two levels below Ødegaard, Zubimendi, and Rice.
France youth international Thierno Barry, a £35 million summer signing from Villarreal, will likely start up front. Portuguese-born Guinea-Bissau international Beto will offer fresh legs later in the match. Moyes prefers a centre-forward who is tall and strong, can run tirelessly, and is willing to be physical. Both strikers meet those criteria.
However, both have managed only a single league goal each this season, typifying the team’s struggle to score. Only Notts Forest and Wolves have scored fewer than Everton’s 18 league goals this season. That stands in stark contrast to a defence that is the seventh meanest.
In losing 2-0 at Stamford Bridge last weekend, Everton struggled to create chances, and Chelsea cut through their defence more often than Moyes would have liked.
The Arsenal
After last weekend’s reversion to the late-era Wenger horseshoe of ennui against Wolves, the hope must be that the unaccustomed luxury of late of a week without a game — and two full days off for the players — has recharged minds and bodies.
However, Benny Blanco has now been added to the broken bodies list, comprising Kai Havertz, Gabriel, Cristhian Mosquera and Max Dowman. On the plus side, Riccardo Calafiori returns from suspension.
We’ve won only once away to Everton since 2017, and this will be a challenging game. Arteta will select his strongest available XI. The main uncertainties are whether Gyökeres, Merino or Jesús starts up front, and who among Eze, Martinelli, Madueke and Trossard will be playing on their left. I hazard:
Raya
Timber, Saliba, Hincapié, Calafiori
Ødegaard, Zubimendi, Rice
Saka, Gyökeres, Eze
We can’t say that the Hill-Dickinson is always a tough place to go, as we haven’t been there before. Nor will there be an emotional return for Arteta, on the sixth anniversary of his appointment as our manager, to the pitch where he played for Moyes from 2005 to 2011. (Moyes says he remembers Arteta as a great player but a moaner.)
If anything, Everton have yet to turn their new home into a fortress, winning only four of their eight home matches so far, drawing two and losing two. However, Everton’s ultras, the 1878s group, will stage a tifo spectacular ahead of kick-off to raz up the atmosphere, with everyone in the 15,000-seat South Stand taking part in the display.
Must win, again
After a frenetic run of seven games in 21 days that left us looking heavy-legged, I trust a week of rest and recovery will have recharged us, ready for the frenetic run of seven games in 22 days across the festive season.
With City at home to West Ham earlier in the day, we could be off the top by the time we kick off, so this game becomes yet another must-win. Yet, we should have enough to win and return to the top, especially as Everton will be missing some of their most potent threats. 2-0 to the good guys.
Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.
Fly through the Hill Dickinson here – don’t forget to pick up three points!
Cheers Ned!
Cool, if slightly headache-inducing video. And there was me naively thinking Hill Dickinson was some ex-Everton player I had not heard about. It’s 2025, what sort of fool am I?
While Pickford might be irrationally irritating, I absolutely loathe Tarkowski, and that’s because he is a smirking thug.
Even more than last week, I’ll take any sort of (preferably injury-free) win tomorrow.
Cheers, Ned and many thanks for setting the stage with your excellent preview and (I think) with that vertigo-inducing video link. ( I do try to avoid flying whenever possible rather like Dennis. )
Who shall be our Dennis on the morrow? Calafiori might just have that extra ounce of energy that can get us over the line, but Trossard could be the one who breaches the Toffees’ goal when we need it most. COYG
Fearing this is the game Pgmol screw us over.
Excellent and very well- researched preview Ned . When I was in Liverpool last year I went up to the area where the new stadium has been built and from the outside it looks spectacular although I do like the great old football stadia like Goodison .
Your side is a very sensible suggestion. I think Trossard may play wide left. I wouldn’t pick Gyokeres to start but think Arteta will. I hope we can gain a safe and merited 2-0 win
COYG !
Thanks for an extremely informative preview as ever, Ned. Goodison was always a hostile place to visit and, as a result of the natives, who remain unchanged and unwashed, I can’t see our visit to this glossy new home being any easier. Everton away has nearly always been a difficult game to take the points even when visited by our better teams. We need a fast start to silence the crowd and 100% focus on the task at hand with every player determined to win his individual duels.
Like TTG, I would start Trossard rather than Eze but I would stick with the rest of your selection, particularly of Gjökeres at CF – he’s not only still acclimatising to his new teammates and the greater challenge presented by the PL but he’s also now playing himself back to match sharpness. The lad needs games and Ødegaard, in particular, needs to pass to him as he makes his runs.
Thanks Ned, informative as ever and heartening to hear Everton are struggling
with injuries and absences as much as The Arsenal.
Hopefully our mojo is back and 3 points will be taken. Like others I think Leo will
start though I am curious to see who, if anyone, is dropped as MA was none too happy
after last weeks game. Possibly changes in midfield as MA has talked about managing
Zuni’s playing time and Merino might be handy for this one.
Cheers Ned for another fact filled journey. We certainly need to give a winning performance this evening and put recent lack lustre ones behind us – C115y are right on our tails now. Hopefully a whole week without a match will reinvigorate the players back to form.
Like Bath I think Leo will get the nod ahead of the disappointing Eze – he seems to have raised his game a level and shows more integration with the Gyök. Although our record against the toffees on their home patch has been sticky of late I think we can add to their losing streak at their new abode – 2-0 to the good guys seems a good call.
COYRRR
Thanks, Ned for the usual enjoyable history lesson.
The “irrationally irritating” Pickford – 100%
The snide thug, Tarkowski got off lightly in your analysis.
As Man C130y have been mentioned more than once above, I’ll take this seasonal opportunity to mention one of their old players, Mosampa – aptly nicknamed by his teammates, “Chris”.
I loved the way, after last Saturday’s win against Wolves, where having failed to score from open play AND our much enviously criticised set pieces, we simply got the opposition to score all the goals for us 🤣🤣
Come on you Rreddsss !
Touted title aspirants Chavski getting dominated
at Riyadh Rovers. 2-0 after 20 minutes should be a
good test – though I expect them to fail as they
aren’t title contenders to me.
Haha, Trev. Took a me a few seconds to get that pun! Cheers!
Matt @9 – I think Chelsea are worthy of a title but it ain’t nuttin’ to do with the Premier League !
True enough Trev.
The second half has oddly mirrored the first as Newcastle
have been useless – must have been nice guy Eddie’s half-time
team talk.
I fear that I must report that I have experienced a sudden, enervating sense of doom that swept over me like a wave as I walked home with the dog this evening. I hope that it doesn’t presage more injuries and another defeat. I don’t generally have strong premonitions and I’m not the seventh son of a seventh son. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong. Maybe it’s indigestion. Maybe it’s the news of a predictable easy three points for C130y against the hopeless Spammers. Let’s hope the players are fired up to regain top place.
COYG
I suspect/fear Chalobah getting away with what he did in his own box may be the blueprint for Tarkowski tonight…..
Bath ,
I have had similar premonitions , brought on partly by C130y’s recovery and our drop-off in form since the NLD . We can have a positive reset with several players coming back ( or starting their season) but we do miss the character of Gabriel particularly. Tonight is a big test and I hope we come back after last week’s horror show refreshed .
As you know I have one grandson ( disinherited ) who tends towards the dark side of North London. It is his 18th birthday weekend and today sees him at the Old Toilet . He sent me pictures of the Sky Walk and Go- Karting( his Dad won the event ) and enjoying attractive catering . I have warned him to leave before the football spoils everything !
Informative as ever Ned, thank you! And good analysis of Everton’s likely game plan with Moyes back at the only club where he has always seemed to be a natural fit.
Mikel’s sixth anniversary as a manager with us. We are a completely different squad now, maybe even a completely different club. The transformation will sooner or later arrive at the apogee where the challenge would be to continue to sustain that success. But as Mikel says about a fully fit squad (which would be a good idea), that’s the kind of challenge one likes to relish.
We have to win away games against midtable clubs given how tight the margin has become at the top. Your starting eleven looks good, however I may prefer Trossard to Eze on left and Eze to come on later if we still need goals. Hoping for Gyökeres to find the form he was coming into before the injury and keeping their burly central defenders busy, allowing Saka and Leo more space and time on the ball.
I think (hope) the week long break will reset the team and a typically controlled dominance would see us through. I like the 2-0 scoreline, earned without any more injury scares.
Come on Arsenal!
Kneed it! UTA!
I am strangely calm about this evening’s game. I anticipate the team being good enough and am confident they will put in a shift.
COYG
Yessss!
COYG
Crazy handball by Everton. Ballsy penalty by VG. One nil to the Arsenal.
‘Ave it! UTA!
I hope.this penalty will help Gyomeres as mus as it helped Kai to start scoringbregularly.
Smashed it! UTA!
A very tough watch but a hugely important three points. Are we through our rough patch?
Number 1 at Christmas baby!
I would say not C100 until we start being more clinical in games. Yet again it could have been a 95th minute equaliser because we can’t seem to take our chances. It might be our undoing. We can’t rotate during games if it’s nil all or a slender lead.
That said, we are top of the league say we are top of the league.
And pep’s cheats might have a hard game soon.
I thought we managed the last 15 minutes much better than against Wolves
>>>>>>>