Everton Football Club have had an indifferent start to the new Premier League season. The Toffees started off the campaign poorly and it led to plenty of questions surrounding the future of Sean Dyche as the club’s manager, especially given the recent takeover by The Freidkin Group.
However, recent results have been more uplifting for the Blues, and early fears about being dragged into a relegation battle may well have been quashed.
With that being said, there are still alarm bells ringing for Dyche and Everton, as is shown when looking in more detail at their underlying stats from this season.
Everton’s stats from the 2024/25 season
Currently, the Merseysiders sit in 16th place in the Premier League, on just five points after eight games. They have one win, against Crystal Palace two weeks ago, and a couple of draws against fellow relegation-threatened side Leicester City and Newcastle last Saturday.
They are currently far short of Phil McNulty’s predictions for this season. McNulty, who is BBC Sport’s chief football writer, predicted the Toffees to finish 11th this term. He explained he does “not see Everton struggling this season”, which so far has not quite how it has worked out.
Indeed, their underlying stats, courtesy of Understat, are slightly underwhelming. Aside from being on five points, the Toffees are 17th for expected points, predicted to be on 5.36. Not only that, the seven goals they have to their name, the equal tenth most in the league, is also worse than they should be doing. Their expected goals tally stands at 8.09 xG currently.
Points
5
9th
Expected points
5.36
17th
Goals for
7
10th
Expected goals for
8.09xG
17th
Goals against
15
=11th
Expected goals against
14.77xGA
16th
Despite a tough start, there have been some standout performers for Dyche’s side so far. The Merseysiders have been able to count on Dwight McNeil consistently, and he has three goals and two assists in seven games. Summer signing Iliman Ndiaye has also impressed, notably scoring against Leicester towards the end of September.
There is another summer signing who could also drastically help improve their season. That man is Tim Iroegbunam.
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21-year-old midfielder Iroegbunam made the move to Goodison Park from Aston Villa over the summer, costing Everton around £9m and signing a deal until 2027 with the Merseysiders.
So far this term, the former Villa man has played a sporadic role for his new club, starting their first four Premier League games, but was a substitute for the next three, coming off the bench twice. He also started in the Carabao Cup against Doncaster Rovers, where he registered an assist.
When Jude Bellingham left Borussia Dortmund last summer, there were reports linking the young midfielder with an incredible move to the Signal Iduna Park, as a replacement for the now-Real Madrid superstar, as noted by football scout Antonio Mango.
Whilst he is not necessarily of the same profile as Bellingham as he is now known – a box-crashing number 10 with creative influence in the final third – the box-to-box midfielder the England international was at Dortmund is certainly similar to Iroegbunam’s profile.
Football analyst and host of The Overlap Breakdown H described the youngster as a “dominant” ball carrier in the middle of the park, and a “long-legged ball-winner”, standing at around 6 foot tall; indeed very similar to Bellingham.
The stats from the 2024/25 campaign so far certainly back this theory up. The former England U20 international has some standout numbers as per Squawka.
Per 90 minutes this season, he has won an average of 6.9 ground duels and made 4.3 tackles. In possession, the youngster completes 10.2 forward passes per game, has a take-on success rate of 50% and completes an average of 1.2 take-ons per match.
It is fair to say that Dyche, and Everton, have a very exciting talent on their hands in Iroegbanum. The 21-year-old might be at the start of his Toffees career, but he could play a huge role in their survival this term, and eventually help them kick on and climb the table.
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