The last generation of Premier League and EFL new-build stadiums was one of bowls without souls, personality left undefined in favour of uniformity and convenience.
Aston Villa will get their first taste of the top flight’s newest new-build on Saturday, when Unai Emery and his players attempt to get their 2025/26 season up and running in their first Premier League fixture after the September international break.
Everton have started the season much more brightly, winning both of their matches after an opening weekend defeat to Leeds United and starting life at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in style with a victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Toffees had played at Goodison Park since 1892, five years before Villa took up residence at Villa Park. While it was rationally clear that Everton needed to move in order to grow, most Villa supporters will have an idea of what it would feel like to leave Villa Park and therefore what an upheaval it must have been for life-long Evertonians.
Getting off to a winning start is a great way to bed in at a new facility and the place looks mighty impressive. Like the rebuilt Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the ground at Bramley-Moore Dock seems to have plenty of character of its own. It just needs successes and some exciting football and it’ll feel like home.
At face value, David Moyes might not sound like the manager to deliver that. Now in his second spell in charge, Moyes has a reputation for old-fashioned pragmatic football but a relationship with Everton that really seems to mean something.
Winning football is good football when push comes to shove. Moyes has started 2025/26 in decent form in that regard.
The Everton boss has also been handed the ultimate attacking wildcard. If I’m honest, I’m incredibly envious.
A different kind of reunion
Whether we like it or not, the story of this fixture – a story Villa must both ignore and overcome – is Jack Grealish.
When the former Villa captain left the club in 2021, he made a compromise with himself. Nobody can say whether or not he knew it, but I did: Grealish was swapping his essence as a footballer for trophies.
Losing Grealish was a horrible experience but when he retires in a few years both parties will be able to look back and say that it worked out in an acceptable way, if not necessarily the best or most romantic. The player got his silverware. Villa made a packet they probably needed.
If I was confident that Grealish wasn’t going to be the same player at Manchester City, I’m even more damned sure he’s one hell of a footballer and is still capable of showing it.
Everton looks good on him. He’s taken no time to start playing with a bit of swagger again, to make things happen again. He has four assists to his name in 196 minutes of Premier League football.
Villa have played against Grealish before but this is a whole new ball game. He wasn’t really Grealish before. He is now.
Everton made some smart moves in the transfer window. Grealish, Tyler Dibling and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are handy players I’d have happily taken at the Villa.
The Toffees will arrive at the Hilly Dick in fantastic nick on Saturday, confident of adding to Villa’s woes. If they do, you can bet Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall will be at the heart of it.
Emery will be working on a plan to prevent that, and to stifle those two players in particular. He’s going to need it.