Next: Everton vs Newcastle Utd

After what seemed like an era without Premier League football during yet another international break (thankfully the last of the year), we’ve barely had enough time to gather our thoughts following the tumultuous events and fantastic result at Old Trafford, yet Everton are back in action against Newcastle Utd on Saturday.

This could be a boring match against The Skunks… or it could be a dead heat. I’m not one to make predictions, but some of the ingredients are already in the pot and getting nice and warm ahead of Eddie Howe’s team’s first appearance at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

They might feel a little sad about the way last season ended, with Charly Alcaraz producing an excellent header to win a thrilling match at home on the final day of the season.

Alcaraz could even get a rare start as David Moyes is set to shuffle the pack and while Tyler Dibling can be expected to replace Gana the Slapper, it looks like a serious reluctance to use the youngster, recently praised by Moyes for his good skills and ability in training, will continue as he apparently doesn’t do enough to support the defence.

The more natural like-for-like replacement, however, is Tim Iroegbunam, who made just one start in the last eight games but was quite solid when called upon as a usually late substitute in a handful of those games.

The Coleman experiment failed miserably, with that third game in ten days being a step too far for the aging Everton captain, who had given everything for his country and just couldn’t do it for his club.

But Coleman became part of the reason why Moyes had to use all five of his entourage of substitutes – for the second time this season. And four of them were scored, as usual, very late in the match, with less than 10 minutes of normal playing time remaining. But that’s Moyes’ way, and he won’t be deterred.

Jordan Pickford was extremely good on Monday on the few occasions Manchester United came close to scoring, and he also played blindside in that game against Newcastle, which proved to be such a great way to end the season with the fans singing his name.

The erratic moments that frustrated fans appear to have been eradicated, brain specialists claim in a new report that we don’t really grow out of adolescence until we’re 32, and he seems to be a good example! Nick Pope was pushing him for a while (or the pundits were pushing him!) but Pickford seems to have fought off all the contenders for the England shirt, with Thomas Tuchel no doubt quite impressed.

I’ve decided not to think too much about Thierno Barry and his ongoing goal drought. But the moment Beto came on and fell over the ball at Old Trafford suggests we should persevere with the new centre-forward instead of the old one, that extraordinary five-goal purple stain he went through in February is now a distant and fading memory.

But we had a great goal from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on Monday… and for a moment it looked like Jack Grealish might pull the trigger in similar fashion. But no. Why oh why doesn’t he shoot more often?

And of course it means a return to Everton for Anthony Gordon, who appears to have recovered from a hip problem that has seen him miss the last two Premier League games, but played 72 minutes against Marseille yesterday.

The match starts on Saturday 29 November 2025 at 5.30pm GMT and can be seen on Sky Sports from 5pm.

Our normal matchday coverage will continue, with the Live Forum attracting more than 1,300 responses on Monday after the IT people resolved some of the remaining technical challenges. We will continue to work on improvements to the website as the transition to a new design platform continues.

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