The EPL is already the Greatest Show on Turf (hybrid surfaces actually, but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it), but this season is building up to be an absolute classic. Big money has been spent, Liverpool are setting an incredibly high bar, Manchester City are looking to bounce back, Arsenal are hoping to ditch the "second again" moniker, Tottenham and Manchester United are seeking redemption and Chelsea are the "best club on the planet", or rather, they won some tournament played in the US in the off season!

 

I have previewed all 20 teams and will then round things up next Monday, by which time, hopefully at least a few more big transfers will have been sorted, but with the transfer window open until September 1st @ 19:00, there will be deals done right down to the wire. 

 

Everton are interesting.

 

David Moyes returned to the club as head coach in January with the Toffees one point above the drop zone and having scored just 15 goals. They picked up 31 points subsequently with a +8 goal difference and those numbers are respectively, 8th and 6th place levels. Everton actually finished 13th which was their highest since 2020/21 and Moyes restored confidence in players who were devoid of it and almost instantly. This is his second spell at the club and I think that people forget just how good he was, he spent 11 years at Goodison Park, before leaving for Manchester United to replace Sir Alex Ferguson, which was always going to be tough shoes to fill, especially when those shoes were still at Old Trafford most days! Anyway, in his last eight seasons on Merseyside Everton finished 6-5-5-8-7-7-6-5 and were being heavily tipped to break into the Big 6 cartel. I touched upon his record in four seasons at West Ham United earlier this week ( 6-7-14-9 and won a first European trophy in 58 years and first of any sort since 1981). In his last 14 full seasons in the EPL he has guided teams to 12 top 9 finishes ( 11 top 8's) and we are talking about clubs that have struggled either side of those appointments. 

 

There is optimism surrounding the club for the first time in many seasons, the takeover by The Friedkin Group (who also own Roma) was finally completed in December and that had been going on longer than Eastenders! That has put them on a more stable footing , the club are still heavily in debt, partly due to the building of the new stadium, but have no PSR issues , something which has long plagued them and that situation was further improved as they "did a Chelsea" last month and sold their women's team to the parent group. This will be their first season at Bramley-Moore Dock, their new home, also known as the Everton or Hill Dickinson Stadium, I know someone who works for the sponsor and he said I had to use that name! It holds 53k and is the 8th biggest in the EPL and will be a venue for Euro 2028. Off the pitch the club look in their best shape for decades.

 

Moyes has started the cull and a lot of senior players , very senior in some cases, have departed and he looks to have upgraded with the additions of Thierry Barry CF from Villarreal, midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Chelsea) and Carlos Alcaraz (not that one!) from Flamengo and a even a back up goalkeeper and left back for the future, luxuries not seen for a while.  Barry is just 22 but has played one season for each of Basel, Beveren and Villarreal and scored 51 goals, including 11 in La Liga last season and Everton hope he is the striker they have been looking for. They do have Beto too and 7 of his 8 goals last season came after Moyes arrived and the head coach does have a knack of getting the most out of his players and certainly got more of a tune offensively out of the same players last season than Sean Dyche did. They were "OK" from set pieces at both ends, but Moyes should be able to further up those and a lot of their poorer numbers from 24/25 are skewed as they were terrible before his arrival. No real issues beyond having to adapt to the new stadium and that is the great unknown ,this squad still needs continued investment, but that will come over time.