5 Weeks In – What Have we Learned About Everton So Far This Season?

After an unbeaten start, what can the Toffees get up to in what has so far been an anything but ordinary season?

Who would have thought it?

Everton go into the international break with no losses to their name, no calamity and no mad reasons for the fans to be complaining (not like that has stopped them). Currently sitting 7th in the table, level with Liverpool, and still in the Carabao Cup, this marks Everton’s best start to a season since the 21/22 Premier League campaign, and the first without defeat since the 20/21 season, where under Carlo Ancelotti, we were top of the league after 4 rounds and making Spirit of the Blues a nationwide sensation, good times.

A slender 1-0 victory over Ipswich Town on Saturday was our fourth victory in all competitions this season and capped off a welcome and positive start to the campaign in most departments. Usually, us Everton fans would be thankful for an international break. Getting three weeks away from the team can sometimes feel like a fever dream, but this season feels different.

Just because we are grinding results out on the pitch doesn't mean our season has been entirely straightforward, though. We are walking on thin ice when it comes to squad depth and match fitness, so I suppose you could say this break does come at a good time for us. Well, for some of the players at least.

Please for the Love of God, Protect Our Players on International Duty

Encase them in ice if you have to, give them extra treatment, wrap them in bubble wrap; we cannot afford injuries at this stage of the season. As I alluded to, our squad has SHRUNK since last season, with some significant departures from Hill Dickinson that, due to some reasons, weren't reciprocated with enough transfers coming the other way.

Everton just dropped the smallest squad picture we've ever seen.

📸 @Everton pic.twitter.com/rFCu4jsAlu

— COPA90 (@Copa90) September 22, 2026

Players like Dwight McNeil, Beto and, especially, Iliman Ndiaye all left the club, which has left us pretty tight for numbers. So much so that it feels inevitable one of our substitute benches will include two goalkeepers at some stage.

We cannot afford injuries, especially long ones, and with the way some of our players are seemingly being rinsed for minute after minute, the chances of that happening only seem to increase. Almost as if squad depth can combat the issue of fatigue and injury. Who would have thought?

My main concern is players getting injured when not even bloody playing for Everton. England especially gives me reason to worry. Jordan Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite were both named in Thomas Tuchel's squad, while James Garner has now also received a call-up ahead of England's four – yes, FOUR – fixtures over the next two weeks. An injury to ANY of them would seemingly cast huge doubt over our upcoming fixtures, particularly when the starting XI has remained largely unchanged from game one to game five.

James Garner has been called up by England for the forthcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Good luck, Jimmy! 💙 pic.twitter.com/RbKpV0fd4w

— Everton (@Everton) September 21, 2026

Branthwaite especially hasn't managed to catch much of a break with injuries recently, to the point where his minutes were still being managed towards the beginning of the season. Please, please, please, don't get injured JB. We risk playing Michael Keane again, and I can't take much more of the Keane and Tarkowski partnership.

We don't know how much Branthwaite will actually feature in Tuchel's plans over the break, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it. Fingers crossed he does awful and barely plays. Might get some of those transfer rumours to piss off for a bit too.

Our Defence Ain’t Bad You Know

On the topic of defenders, I have been seriously impressed with the stability across our back four. It isn't exactly a new story that Everton's defence is the strongest aspect of the team, but more often than not that has simply been because the attacking part has been, to put it bluntly, shit.

But conceding just three goals across our opening SEVEN matches in all competitions is something to be applauded. In the Premier League, Everton have conceded only three times in five matches, with Leeds United the only other side to have conceded as few. That isn't just a decent defensive record. It is the foundation this entire unbeaten start has been built on.

Now yes, you could argue our opening group of fixtures hasn't exactly been the most terrifying. We've played a promoted team and a Spurs side who somehow took until the 86th minute of their FIFTH Premier League match to score their first league goal of the season. But there are still plenty of positives to take from the opposition we've faced, and three Premier League clean sheets from five matches is a massive one.

It isn't just Branthwaite's return to the team that has helped either. The other three defenders around him have all seemingly stepped up.

Tarkowski had a lot of people – me included – thinking he was past it and shouldn't be starting anymore, especially with Jake O'Brien waiting in the wings. That couldn't be further from the truth so far. He already has a goal and an assist in the Premier League, produced a Man of the Match display against Ipswich and has looked mightily impressive alongside JB.

James Tarkowski delivers 14 points against Ipswich!

The defender has returned in four of the opening five Gameweeks 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/voaRo1nNAM

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) September 19, 2026

Vitalii Mykolenko, who has received a lot of flak from Everton fans in the past purely from the fact he isn't very good, has impressed this season too. Me included. The only problem is that he is our only current left-back, so a hell of a lot of pressure is on him to stay fit and perform.

Then, the right-back. A position that probably summed up our entire transfer window. Until the final hours of deadline day, we still didn't have one. We eventually got our man in Ainsley Maitland-Niles, even if he has expressed in the past that he ain't one, but boy are we glad he came in. Not just because of his wondergoal for the last-minute equaliser against Manchester United, but because he has just looked like... a good right-back.

Is maitland-Niles really good or is this just what it’s like to have a natural right back?

— Lewis (@LewisN_33) September 19, 2026

A lot of Toffees can't quite tell whether he really is that good or whether we haven't played a natural right-back in so long that seeing somebody actually play the position properly has completely perplexed us. We are having to relearn what a right-back actually looks like. Either way, AMN has been good and has immediately become an important part of a defence that has barely given anything away since his arrival.

Our Attack's Not Quite as Good, But Far From Shite

Six goals is nothing to brag about in the Premier League, especially when Brighton have scored 16, but when you're working with such a strong and resolute defence, sometimes all it takes is one goal to win a football match. That couldn't be more true of our last two league victories, both slender 1-0 wins. It shows we are doing just enough to get over the line.

That has, understandably, come under criticism from some fans who aren't impressed with the quality of the performances, especially when it comes to creating chances and, more importantly, actually taking them. But at the end of the day, the result is the most important part, and it's a lot easier to criticise a performance knowing you've still got three points at the end of it. Ipswich was probably the perfect example. Everton had 21 shots but managed just TWO on target.

When it comes to our attack, you have to start with Thierno Barry. Five goals already this season in all competitions – although it should probably be even more – represents an enormous improvement on where he was this time last year. A huge amount of pressure has been placed on his shoulders as the only out-and-out striker in our squad, and although he is still missing his fair share of chances, he looks a completely different player.

He didn't score his first Everton goal last season until DECEMBER, in what was already his 17th appearance for the club. This time around, he has five before September is even finished.

The underlying numbers also tell an interesting story. Barry has scored twice in the Premier League from around 3.5 expected goals, which tells you two things at once: Everton are creating chances for their striker, but he is still leaving a fair few of them on the table.

Highest xG in the Premier League this season:

🥇 Thierno Barry (3.66)
🥈 Bukayo Saka (3.58)
🥉 Alexander Isak (3.21) pic.twitter.com/fT6yFmdS9V

— WhoScored (@WhoScored) September 20, 2026

With additions like Tyrique George and Jack Grealish to our attacking line-up, those chances should continue to come. We just need to be more clinical. We could easily be sitting here talking about an Everton side with even more points if Barry had taken some of those chances against Bournemouth, Spurs and United, but that's not how football works sometimes.

Tyler Dibling Has Finally Come Out of His Shell

This has me the most intrigued when it comes to Everton after the break. Dibling was a star performer against Wolves last week and again looked good against Ipswich. After so long, it finally feels like he is properly fighting for his spot, and competition is something this team desperately needs despite its lack of depth. With how small our squad is, there is a danger of the team becoming formulaic. Opposition teams will know exactly what to expect, exactly who is likely to start and exactly how we are going to play. Eventually, somebody will punish us for it. Having multiple players genuinely vying for the same spot can therefore only be a good thing.

We also have the likes of Charly Alcaraz, Hayden Hackney and Christian Norgaard, when he returns, fighting for places in midfield, as well as Jake O'Brien waiting for his opportunity in defence. Dibling isn't the only one with something to prove, but recently he has shown more promise than he ever has in an Everton shirt, and that can only be a good thing.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall Needs to Get Going

I don’t want this to turn into a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall pile-on, because we all know how good of a footballer he can be. We saw plenty of it last season, and when he is playing with confidence and getting involved around the box, he can be one of Everton’s most important players.

But so far this season, it just hasn’t really happened for him. Saturday against Ipswich was probably the lowest point, struggling to make much of an impact, wasting a brilliant opportunity to double our lead and eventually being replaced by Dibling, who arguably offered more in his cameo. It hasn’t just been one game either. There have been flashes, but in a team that isn't exactly blowing opponents away in the final third, we need more from one of our most creative players.

Dewsbury-Hall should have been subbed about four games ago.

Not really backing up his pop at the fans is he.

— Fran (@frannyporter) September 19, 2026

Dibling’s emergence also gives Moyes a genuine decision to make: does he continue trusting Dewsbury-Hall to play himself back into form, or reward the player currently taking his opportunities?

There is another way of looking at it, though. Everton have made this unbeaten start without Dewsbury-Hall being anywhere near his best. If he rediscovers the form we know he is capable of, an attack that has looked pretty blunt at times suddenly becomes considerably more dangerous.

So, How Good Are We Actually?

That is the question I still don’t really know the answer to.

Before a ball was kicked this season, I had Everton finishing ninth. Five Premier League games, nine points and an unbeaten start later, and strangely enough, I don’t think my prediction has changed all that much. That isn’t me trying to put a dampener on what has been a really encouraging start. If anything, I feel considerably more confident about Everton being capable of finishing in that area of the table than I did a month ago.

There is a really solid foundation here. Pickford remains Pickford, the defence has been excellent, Barry has started scoring much earlier than he did last season and players like Dibling are beginning to give Moyes genuine decisions to make. We have also shown an ability to grind out results when we aren’t playing particularly well, which is something every decent Premier League side needs to be capable of doing.

But there are also enough warning signs to stop me getting carried away. The squad is worryingly small, an injury to one or two key players could completely change the complexion of the team and we are still not clinical enough in front of goal. We aren’t going to be able to win every game 1-0, and there will eventually be an afternoon where one of Barry’s missed chances, a defensive mistake or a moment of quality from the opposition costs us points.

The encouraging part is that I don’t think we have seen Everton at their best yet. Grealish and George are still settling in, Dibling has only just started showing what he can do, Dewsbury-Hall has another level to reach and Barry, despite scoring five already, could quite easily have considerably more. If the attack starts clicking while the defence maintains anything close to its current level, then maybe we can start looking a little higher than ninth.

I’m just enjoying watching an Everton team that hasn’t given me a reason to completely lose my head five games into the season. That alone feels like progress. The international break gives everyone a chance to reset before we go again, and hopefully gives Moyes some time to work out how he can squeeze even more out of this team.

Just send all of our internationals back in one piece. Please.