Everton unbeaten run: Moyes earns credit after seven games

Everton have gone unbeaten in seven matches across all competitions heading into the season’s first international break. The Everton unbeaten run began with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day and has not been broken since.

The sequence includes three Premier League draws, against Bournemouth, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, alongside a 1-0 win over Ipswich Town. Two Carabao Cup victories complete the picture. It is a run built on a settled defence rather than a flood of goals.

Everton’s unbeaten start: how it happened

David Moyes’s side opened with that win over Palace, then drew 1-1 with Bournemouth and 2-2 with Manchester United before a goalless draw at Tottenham Hotspur. A 1-0 win over Ipswich Town followed, extending the run to five league games without defeat.

Everton have also gone two rounds through the Carabao Cup, beating Preston North End 4-0 away before a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Hill Dickinson Stadium, a run tracked in our Carabao Cup piece. Across both competitions that is seven matches without defeat, the span our full report on the unbeaten start set out in full.

The expert angle: Moyes deserves credit

Alan Smith, speaking in a Liverpool Echo interview quoted by ReadEverton, gave Moyes direct credit for the run. “David Moyes deserves lots of credit,” Smith said.

Smith pointed to the central defensive pairing as the platform behind it. “They’ve got a brilliant platform of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite in central defence,” he said, according to the same Liverpool Echo interview quoted by ReadEverton.

He was more cautious about the attack, saying: “because I don’t think they’ve got loads of goals in them.” Three draws and a string of one-goal wins support that view. Moyes’s side have leaned on defence more than firepower to stay unbeaten.

The transfer market shows a similar balance of caution and ambition. Angus Kinnear addressed that balance before the window opened, in the Liverpool Echo report: “I think we will spend more than most of our competitors, the owners are very keen to back us.”

Everton sold Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson for more than £100m, yet finished the summer 15th among Premier League clubs for net spend. They still made an overall trading profit.

The incoming business was modest by comparison. Ainsley Maitland-Niles arrived from Lyon for £4m, and Jack Grealish returned on a season-long loan from Manchester City. An attempt to sign Folarin Balogun from Monaco collapsed on deadline day, according to the Liverpool Echo report.

What happens next

Everton’s senior squad numbers 18 players, yet only one of them is a recognised centre-forward. There is also just one senior right-back and one senior left-back. That leaves little margin for injuries once the Premier League resumes.

That thinness was flagged before the window closed, in our squad-depth read on Thierno Barry and in McGeady’s warning about the senior squad.

Everton return to action on Sunday, October 11 against Hull City. Hull sit one place and one point below Everton in the Premier League table, which makes the fixture a clear marker of where the Everton unbeaten run has taken Moyes’s side so far.

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