Key Highlights
- Hopefully, that situation will change by the end of the month, but for this afternoon’s road game against Aston Villa, the Toffees arrive in suboptimal condition. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFormThe Birmingham outfit were faced with a tight position – with regard to the Premier League’s financial regulations – heading towards this season, and attempted to rectify this by moving out some significant earners, such as Philippe Coutinho and Leon Bailey, along with selling academy product Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle United for a sizeable fee (€45.2m).
- Several players arrived, though major funds were committed only to the purchase of Nice forward Evan Guessand (€30m), with other reinforcements arriving as loans (Jadon Sancho, Harvey Elliot), or free transfers (Viktor Lindelöf). That the veteran former Manchester United centre half has been the one to accrue the most game time so far is indicative of a failed transfer window for Villa.
- Sancho has been in and out of the side, though has started two of the last four league games, but Elliot is in limbo, having played a combined 174 minutes so far across all competitions.
- His loan move from Liverpool will be made permanent for an agreed fee of €41m should he make ten league appearances, and Villa have apparently decided that they no longer want the man named player of the tournament during the summer’s Euro 2025 Under-21 tournament. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhen today’s hosts arrived at Hill Dickinson Stadium early in the season, they’d yet to win a game – or even score a goal – but frustrated Everton in a goalless stalemate, with a negative game plan.
- A couple more draws followed, but from the end of September the Midlanders embarked on a complete turnaround in form, and have won 19 from 23 in all competitions, including a run of eleven straight, which was ended only by league leaders Arsenal.
