Everton seek just a second win in nine matches when they take on Marco Silva’s Fulham at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.
This feels like an important game in the context of the season, and not just
because it is the final match before yet another international break and will dictate the mood among fans for two weeks.
The Toffees are entrenched in mid-table, but such is the compact nature of the league that they are five points off third and just five points clear of 18th. However, lurking after the international break are matches against Manchester United, Newcastle and Bournemouth.
A win over the Cottagers would mean Everton could approach those games in a reasonably healthy position. Lose, and the Toffees will be looking over their shoulder again with a familiar sense of dread.
Monday’s draw at Sunderland will probably go down as a decent point given the form of the Black Cats this season. But a chronic lack of cutting edge meant 30 minutes of total dominance yielded only one goal, with Thierno Barry’s awful miss proving to be the turning point.
I actually felt Barry had done okay during the first half, and it was hard not to feel a touch of sympathy in the second when he realised he was being hauled off early yet again.
I’m sure David Moyes will point out that the summer signing has yet to even register a shot on target for the Toffees so needs to do better. That said, the constant rotation with Beto has not done much for their confidence. But with at least nine matches until the January window opens, Moyes needs to somehow stick with one and try to make it work.
The Opposition
Like Everton, Fulham are also finding goalscoring difficult, netting just 12 in total, with ‘own goal’ their current top scorer on three.
‘Own goal’ was on target again last week as the Cottagers secured a morale-boosting 3–0 win over bottom side Wolves, ending a run of four straight defeats and opening up a four-point gap on the bottom three.
They have an awful record on the road this season, snatching a point on the opening day at Brighton before suffering four successive defeats. But before you get too confident, Fulham have had Everton’s number on Merseyside in recent years.
They are unbeaten in their past five meetings, including a crushing 3–1 victory that very nearly pushed Everton towards relegation in the spring 2023, and the infamous Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat later that year (I still shudder at Onana’s penalty).
Silva became exasperated with his side’s transfer business over the summer, saying they were too “passive” in the market, though they did persuade Kenny Tete to go back on a deal he agreed at Everton to sign a new contract.
His mumblings did push Fulham into some late action, including a club-record £34.6m deal to sign Shakhtar Donetsk winger Kevin, but the former Toffees boss has cut a frustrated figure on the touchline as he attempts to build on a promising 2024–25 season that saw them accrue a record Premier League points total of 54.
Previous meeting
Fulham 1–2 Everton, 10 May 2025
Everton’s strong finish to the season included a come-from-behind win on a warm, sunny May afternoon at Craven Cottage. Raul Jimenez’s opener was cancelled out by a deflected Vitaliy Mykolenko strike, before second-half goals from Michael Keane and Beto in the space of four minutes sealed the win.
Team News
Iliman Ndiaye is fit and available despite being forced off against Sunderland on Monday, with Moyes confirming it was only a minor issue that has not stopped him from training.
There are no other fresh injury concerns, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Nathan Patterson still sidelined.
Final word
The final game before international breaks always feel important, but this one carries extra weight given the tough matches that lie ahead between now and Christmas. Fulham are a bogey team for the Toffees, but their poor performances on the road mean this is an opportunity Everton have to take if they are to stay safely away from trouble.
