The record David Moyes needs to improve in his second spell with Everton | OneFootball

Coming out of the second international break of the 2025/26 season, Everton sit in a comfortable eighth place, just three points off a Champions League position.

But the next fortnight presents two tough tests for the Toffees: beginning with a trip to the Etihad, where they’ll face Manchester City on Saturday afternoon, before hosting Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur the following weekend.

It’s a chance for David Moyes to improve his paltry Everton record against the Premier League's “big six”.

In his 11-year spell as Everton manager from spring 2002 until the summer of 2013, David Moyes came up against “big six” opposition in the Premier League on 134 occasions.

In those matches, Everton won just 31 times, drawing 35, and losing 68, for an average points per game of 0.95.

His best year against these opponents was in 2010/11, when Everton picked up 19 points from a possible 36 against the “big six”, with five wins. His worst was in 2003/04 when the Toffees won just once.

For a team that was constantly on the verge of breaking the glass ceiling to compete with the Premier League’s big boys, this record was often the difference maker.

Since returning to Everton last year, Moyes has faced “big six” opposition on eight occasions in the league.

He earned his first win back in the Everton dugout against Tottenham at Goodison Park. Since then, he has only managed three draws against Liverpool, Manchester United, and Arsenal, while losing on four occasions, twice to Liverpool, and once each to Chelsea and Manchester City.

After a year when just four of the “big six” actually finished in the top half of the table, with Everton finishing above both Tottenham and Manchester United despite only landing in 13th place, the Premier League’s traditional power clubs are returning to top form again this year.

So once again, Everton’s hopes of potentially earning a European place, which can now happen with a finish of seventh or even eighth place, may hinge on results against these sides.

First up for Everton are Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who, after losing two of their first three Premier League matches of the season, are on a run of seven unbeaten in all competitions, sitting third in the league.

It’s a slightly different Manchester City team than the one that dominated the Premier League for so many years.

With several high-profile players leaving the Etihad over the summer, Pep Guardiola has adjusted his tactics slightly to suit the talent currently at his disposal, and so far it’s working.

He’s swapped the ball-playing ability of Ederson for the shot-stopping of Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Tijjani Reijnders has filled in for Kevin De Bruyne to complete the bulk of forward passes.

Guardiola appears to be favoring a slightly more direct approach than in years past. Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku are both touching the ball less in the attacking third, but have also both nearly doubled their productivity per game from last season.

For every one of his first nine seasons at Manchester City, Guardiola’s side held more possession than any other team in the Premier League. But so far this year, four teams are averaging more possession than his.

Everton will likely still opt for a defensive approach to earn a result at the Etihad, hoping to exploit the home side's frailties in defending against counter-attacks, which led to their defeats against Brighton and Tottenham earlier in the season.

Unfortunately for Moyes, Everton will be without their most creative player this season, as Jack Grealish is unable to play against his parent club.

After performing well off the bench against Crystal Palace, Carlos Alcaraz is most likely expecting to step into the vacant starting position, unless Moyes opts for a more like-for-like change with Tyler Dibling.

A trip to the Etihad is usually a write-off in most teams’ seasons. But supporters will be in high spirits after the comeback win against Crystal Palace before the international break, and expect the visitors to at least threaten.

Why is this even an issue? Until we're good enough to compete for honours or the top 4 then games against the best teams don't have that much relevance in my view.

We've been shite for years so our current aim should be mid table safety before we think about anything else.

Thinking about beating the best teams regularly is well out of our reach at the moment and all it does it breed disappointment.

Baby steps. We need to solidify ourselves as a team no longer flirting with relegation before we start getting ideas above our station. I'll be very happy if we finish around 12th or above this season. It's the next few years where we'll be looking to push higher up the league.

James I totally agree. Whilst I’m sure we all want to win every match the reality is we have barely avoided relegation for most of the last few seasons. The expectation we should be consistently challenging the “big six” is not realistic for me.First of all lets make sure we build a team that are consistently beating Brighton, Brentford, Palace etc then build on those foundations to get into the big six

Brian Harrison 4 Posted 16/10/2025 at 14:16:49

i think to expect us to now compete with the top 6, considering where this team has been in the last few years is unrealistic. I read a stat the other day that since Moyes has returned there are only 2 clubs who have amassed more points. But at the end of the day its usually those who spend the most tend to win the most. I am sure some will mention Leicester, but that was a once in a 50year occurrence, thats why clubs promoted to the Premier league get relegated the following season. I think we have to be realistic and accept that it will take more than 1 window and a lot more money to be spent before we can challenge the very best in the league on a regular basis.