Live Blog
52’ – Poor turnover from Iroegbunam and Myko can’t clear, Schade and Thiago combine well to tear open the Blues backline, and Thiago has his second goal of the afternoon to make it 3-0. The Blues are in shambles.
50’ – Iroegbunam gives up a corner. Inswinger from the left and Collins heads in unmarked ahead of Tarkowski. Rocket header that Pickford has no chance on, 2-0 to Brentford just like that. That is the Bees first goal from a corner this season.
48’ – Keane mistake and again Thiago is causing
the backline nightmares. Pickford sets the Blues off on a counter, Grealish runs at the backline, but then holds on to the ball for too long and Myko’s cross eventually nestles in Kelleher’s hands.
46’ – Moyes with an aggressive double change. Beto and Rohl on, with Dibling and McNeil going off. Will it be a 4-4-f**kin’-2?!
Almost immediately pays dividends as Beto gets behind the backline but can’t get off a shot. Now Grealish has the ball but it pings off Rohl, almost found Garner behind him.
Halftime Thoughts – Everton have been outplayed, outworked and outchanced by Brentford, and can thank Pickford that they are only behind 1-0 at the half, though they have had their chances to score too. This better be a belter of a team talk in the dressing room from Moyes.
45+4’ – Now Schade goes in late on Tarky going for a header. Thiago has also gotten called for doing the same thing. The crowd is unhappy, but Taylor keeps the cards in his pocket.
Grealish does well on the left, low cross into the box, Barry with a great stooping header and goddamn Kelleher with an instinctive save! Keane has a chance to shoot, blocked and that’s the chance gone. Halftime whistle goes.
45+2’ – Now Thiago gets behind Keane, ball comes to him and he swivels and shoots, Pickford out quick to save. Whew.
The corner from the Blues left is overhit, Dibling does well to try to let it roll out, and is fouled.
Halftime cannot come soon enough.
45’ – Oof more trouble. Brentford now break on the right with Schade, and Tarky cuts out his cross for a corner. Inswinger, low and cleared, McNeil finds Barry who has his second bad touch in a minute and gives away the ball.
Five minutes to be added on here.
44’ – Now Thiago in space on the right, Everton’s defence in shambles after Iroegbunam’s sliding challenge saw him leave space behind him. His cross is missed by a number of Bees and the Blues survive again.
42’ – Long throw from the Everton right, and Everton can eventually clear though there was a lot of head tennis in the box there. Another dangerous cross into the box for the Bees, and Schade makes contact but it’s straight at Pickford, whew.
The goalie launches it and finds McNeil, who promptly loses the ball, argh.
39’ – Better from the Blues as they win the ball in the middle and McNeil distributes it wide to Grealish, and Kayode goes in heavily and his sliding tackle wins him a yellow card. Freekick from the edge of the attacking third, Garner inswinger.. chance wasted as Taylor gives a foul on Dibling and Schade hand-fighting. The youngster got played on that one as the Brentford player went down easily.
37’ – Brentford clear their lines, Tarky doesn’t quite win the header in the midfield and suddenly the Bees are on the break. It takes JOB blocking a Schade shot to stop that. Corner from the Everton right though, overhit and out for a goalkick.
33’ – Dibling has the ball on the right, and despite his best efforts gets double-teamed and loses the ball, with not a blue shirt anywhere near him for support. O’Brien at right back gives him little to no help, and McNeil has no pace.
31’ – Garner with a nifty two-step to get away and Yarmoluk goes in hard studs-up and will be booked. First yellow card of the afternoon. Pickford pumps the ball upfield and it’s sent right back.
Pickford again, and both Dibling and Keane can’t find some space to shoot. Keane is marking his 250th game for Everton today.
30’ – A bit of a time-out here on the pitch as Ajer received medical attention, and the Blues desperately needed that. Moyes looking very concerned as he’s talking to a number of players.
Camera showing Coleman, Dewsbury-Hall and Alcaraz sitting in the stands. Blues could use all three of them desperately.
Good cross from Myko, Barry header from the edge of the box, straight at the goalie.
25’ – Thiago running at the Everton backline with pace, and it takes three defenders to stop him, with Myko giving up a corner.
Pickford fouled, Ajer and Keane clash of heads and ref Anthony Taylor gives the freekick. The Bees defender has come off worst, on the ground bleeding right now.
23’ – Brentford freekick, cleared by the Blues.
The Iroegbunam experience in a package. He loses the ball when caught in possession, then nips in and steals the ball from a short pass, goes towards goal and then scuffs it wide when the goal was gaping.
20’ – Everton being harried by Brentford in the middle of the park and are unable to get some control. The Blues midfield is in react mode here chasing after the ball.
19’ – Dibling mostly invisible to start the game.
Quick thinking from Grealish there with a quick throw-in after Barry had won a deflection, he is almost in but Kelleher is quick to collect.
15’ – After a good start the Toffees have faded. The Bees are quicker to the second balls and harder into challenges all over the field.
13’ – Frustrating from Tarky that, especially since he’d been a lot better in recent weeks.
11’ – Awful pass out from Tarky and Brentford turn it into a goal. He passes it straight to a pair of Brentofrd players, the ball is won by Janelt who puts it into the box and that man Thiago beats Keane to the ball and places it past Pickford, 1-0 to Brentford. 12th goal of the season for the striker, behind only Haaland.
10’ – Barry does well to win a throw-in off Ajer. Taken long by Mykolenko, Kayode heads back to his goalie just in front of Tarky. .
7’ – McNeil very active and very involved early on. He looks up for it and this portends well for the Blues.
Apparently Mykolenko was a doubt for the Blues today, so one to keep an eye on.
6’ – Barry goes down after a strong challenge from Collins. He’s going to get a buffeting today from him and Ajer.
4’ – Chance! Thiago lost the ball in his defensive third trying to counter, Grealish nicks it and sets up McNeil for the shot, it’s deflected and Kelleher does well to save for a corner.
The Bees have conceded only once from a corner this season, Tarkowski wins the header and Thiago heads off the line!
3’ – Everton as they do at home pressing up high early with the Bees feeling them out.
1’ – Brentford get us underway and go straight for goal, Damsgaard’s header well over.
We have a minute’s applause to remember all the Evertonians that we lost in 2025.
Starting Lineups
Everton – Nailed it in the predicted lineups piece for the first time!
Brentford – Bees very transparent about who plays where.
Match Preview
Everton will start the new year at the friendly confines of Hill Dickinson Stadium as they host Brentford who are a point and spot behind the Toffees. The Blues’ highly impressive win when stripped to bare bones at Nottingham Forest is now behind them and David Moyes needs to find a way to do the same at home as well.
Under Keith Andrews, the Bees have done just about enough as they always have, but do have ambitions of climbing further up the table.
Match Details
Competition: Premier League Matchweek 20
Date and start time: Sunday, January 4th at 7:00a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST
Stadium: Hill Dickinson Stadium, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 52,769
Weather: 35°F/2°C, light rain, 25% chance of precipitation, 2 mph winds
How to Watch/Listen
TV: N/A – United States; Sky Sports Golf – United Kingdom; Fubo – Canada, beIN Sports HD 3, Star Sports 2 Asia, Canal+ Sport 1 Afrique
Radio: evertontv
Live stream: Fubo, Peacock, Sky Go UK, NOW, SKY GO Extra, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Jio Hotstar
Gamethread: There will be a live blog for this game, with our coverage continuing after the final whistle with the match recap and reaction.
*Royal Blue Mersey has affiliate partnerships and may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links provided.
Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
Last Meeting
The two sides drew both their games last season, nil-nil at home at Goodison Park in November, and then a 1-1 away draw in February.
