Christopher Beesley, Liverpool Echo: Everton targeting European qualification for the first time since 2017 | OneFootball

Christopher Beesley, Everton reporter for the Liverpool Echo, gives the lowdown on the Toffees ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Brentford at Gtech Community Stadium (3pm kick-off BST).

David Moyes’ side sit one place behind Brentford in eighth and are hoping to qualify for Europe for the first time since 2017.

It’s just over three months since Brentford made their first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium. How have things gone for Everton since then?

The Brentford game was a rude awakening for Everton in their first full calendar year at Hill Dickinson Stadium, as the 4-2 defeat was the first of three disappointing home results in the space of a week for the Blues.

They followed it up by finishing with just nine men to scramble a 1-1 draw with bottom club Wolves after Michael Keane and Jack Grealish were sent off - the former for hair-pulling - and then went out of the FA Cup at the third-round stage against Sunderland, missing all three penalties in a shoot-out for the first time in their history.

Thankfully, results have picked up since, with away victories at Aston Villa, Fulham and Newcastle.

A near three-month winless streak at home was ended against Burnley and then followed up with the biggest success and best day yet by the Mersey waterfront as Chelsea were dispatched 3-0 last time out.

The Toffees are one of several teams in a packed midtable with eyes on qualifying for European football of some kind next season. What has David Moyes said on that topic, if anything?

In pre-season, I was the only UK journalist over in the USA dedicated to covering Everton at the Premier League Summer Series, and when I sat down with the manager in the team’s hotel in Chicago, he told me: “I’ve got an ambition to see if I can get Everton back towards European football. That’s what I think I have to make my first target.”

He has tried to play it down more recently because he reckons every time he bigs up their chances, they slip up.

Moyes would love to get them back there for the first time in nine years, especially given that he complained a lot of potential transfer targets turned Everton down last summer because they were not in Europe while so many other Premier League clubs were.

On top of that, his side only need three more points from the seven games remaining to record their best points tally in five seasons. Even if they do not end up qualifying for Europe, is it fair to say that would go down pretty well after several difficult campaigns?

Yes, the last few years have been the most traumatic on and off the pitch that Everton have ever known.

In 2022/23, they avoided a first relegation in 72 years by a single goal on the final day despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in their history.

The following season, they were handed an unprecedented brace of points deductions by the Premier League for single PSR rule breaches.

Even at the midway point of last season, when Moyes returned, the team were one point above the relegation zone with less than 50 per cent of their points total from that aforementioned 2022/23 season, so the progress has been massive.

Which player should Brentford be keeping an eye out for on Saturday?

James Garner, who recently made his England debut, has arguably been Everton’s player of the season so far and has taken his game up a couple of levels.

While he can help the team out by filling in as a full-back on either side, his best position is in the thick of the action as a central midfielder where he combines silk - as shown by his through ball for Beto to open the scoring against Chelsea - with steel through his tiger-ish tackling.

What should Keith Andrews’ side expect in terms of shape and style?

I do not think I am giving away any state secrets in saying that Moyes’ Everton rarely deviate from a 4-2-3-1 formation.

It is unfair to suggest they are just physical though, as there are now some flair players in the side, especially Iliman Ndiaye.

What’s your score prediction?

Given that the two sides go into the fixture level on points, I think it could be a closely fought contest, and perhaps a repeat of last year’s scoreline, when the game finished 1-1.