Chelsea are up first in the Premier League this weekend as Xabi Alonso takes his charges north to Goodison Park. Thankfully, someone told our manager, the former Liverpool player, that Everton no longer play at Goodison but rather at Hill Dickinson down the street. That could’ve been awkward!
So, assuming we show up at the right spot, we will have a chance to build on last weekend’s 5-1 win over AFC Bournemouth, our best game under Alonso so far. That performance was worth the three-week wait of the international
break. But, as ever, the question is whether we can produce at those levels (and above) consistently. With no midweek distractions for most of this season, we really have no good excuses for not doing so (at least if we truly want to achieve our stated ambitions).
Set Piece FC and Sham City are already starting to separate themselves from the rest of the league, and only Brighton seem capable of keeping pace with them at the moment. We’ve shown glimpses of the required quality to be in that conversation, but we’ll need more than glimpses to actually get there.
Date / Time: Saturday, October 17, 2026, 12.30 BST; 7:30am EDT; 5pm IST
Venue: Hill Dickinson Stadium, Liverpool
Forecast: Sunny with a gentle breeze on the water
Referee: Paul Tierney (no pitch); Nick Hopton (VAR)
On TV: TNT Sports 1 (UK); USA, Universo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: HBO Max (UK); NBC Sports Live, Telemuno Deportes En Vivo (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Everton team news: Everton’s 49 points were good enough for a 13th place finish last season — matching exactly, in both points and placement their finish from the season prior as well — but at the moment, they find themselves in fifth place despite winning just two of their six games so far. Of course, they have yet to lose a game thanks to four draws. It’s a most Moyesian season for David Moyes, whose team lead the league with just five goals conceded.
Typically, they’ve struggled to score at the other end, though Thierno Barry does have three goals to his name while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who continues to find Everton a perfect fit, has found the back of the net twice already, providing one assist as well — while playing nearly every minute of every game.
Like Chelsea, the Toffees have no European distractions and have a nearly perfect bill of health, with only Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitalii Mykolenko facing late fitness tests (Branthwaite more on the doubtful end of that scale).
“Leicester City won the league with not too many players. We have not got too many players. I am not saying we’re going to win the league, but we want to try to challenge and be around the top teams.”
-David Moyes; source: BBC
View from the enemy: Royal Blue Mersey
Chelsea team news: The big news confirmed yesterday was that Reece James had undergone a “minor” knee operation and will be sidelined until around Christmas. The Captain seemed a bit lost in Alonso’s system (deployed almost exclusive in midfield to help deal with injuries there), but it’s still not great to see him miss yet more time in his (still) young career.
Unlike Everton, we do have plenty of numbers to help deal with injuries — in both defense and in midfield — especially when everyone’s healthy. And other than James, the lesser-spotted Jamie Gittens, and the never-spotted (except maybe outside of nightclubs) Emmanuel Emegha, we do have a clean bill of health.
Last weekend’s win saw the (belated) debut, to great effect, of a new midfield partnership in Moisés Caicedo and Jordan Henderson. Beyond Hendo’s two goals, their performance finally provided some semblance of cohesion and control in that part of the pitch, giving us some hope that we may yet find a way to achieve a fabled “boring” victory. Then again, 4-3’s are better than 1-0’s, aren’t they?
“If we improve or we continue the level of scoring and we decrease the numbers of conceding, we’ll be in a better way, but we need to go game by game. [We] are looking forward to this game, intensity, high-demand game, high-tempo.”
“[Clean sheets] are not an obsession; the obsession is to win and to compete the best possible way, and the clean sheet will come, and I’m pretty sure of that. [We] want to play with good balance, with good control, but because we will create chances, the attacking power that we have is fantastic, they connect well, they have chemistry, so we need to keep maximising that and as well be more consistent. […] I’m positive that we will find in this next period a better performance in that way.”
-Xabi Alonso; source: Football.London
Previously: Goodison was not a happy place for us, and we lost our very first game at Hill Dickinson, 3-0 last year. So the only way is up, right?
