Chris Beesley examines a talking point from Everton's 1-0 win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium
“The School of Science, it’s on its way back...” That was the chant that bellowed out from the away end at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night as Everton secured a long overdue first Premier League win at Bournemouth.
Originally popular with Blues during the days of Roberto Martinez, the man who succeeded David Moyes when he left for Manchester United over a dozen years ago, the terrace anthem, sung to the tune of the Beach Boys’ Sloop John B, has now been updated for 2025/26. The new version goes something like this: “Moyesy had a dream, to build a football team, he went to City and he signed Jack Grealish on loan. We play from the back, Ndiaye in attack, the School of Science, it’s on its way back.”
A nickname that long predates either ’The Mersey Millionaires’ or ’The Dogs of War’, the School of Science tag has been with Everton for almost a century. In 1928, the same year as Dixie Dean’s 60 goals and the Blues’ third League Championship in their Golden Anniversary, pioneering Victorian football legend Steve Bloomer, who originally hailed from the Black Country village of Cradley, eloquently observed: “We owe a great deal to Everton.
“No matter where they play, and no matter whether they are well or badly placed in the league table, they always manage to serve football of the highest scientific order. Everton always worship at the shrine of craft and science, and never do they forget the standard of play they set out to achieve.”
So, after battling just to survive in the Premier League in recent years, are the Blues now turning on the style again? Some hopeless romantics among the West Ham United fanbase – who appeared ungrateful at the time and now downright ignorant and misguided – criticised Moyes’ style of play for not being attractive enough for the self-proclaimed “Academy of Football.”
These churlish gripes came despite the Glaswegian gaffer leading them to a first major trophy in 43 years and the first back-to-back (read this carefully and let it sink in regarding the Irons’ true status in the game’s pecking order) top seven finishes in the club’s entire history. During Moyes’ first lengthy stint at Everton – when he guided them to nine top-eight finishes, including a highest-ever Premier League placing of fourth – any suggestion that he was only produced direct football would be a gross simplification.
Yes, the Blues would try and get the ball forward as quickly as possible – in a fashion that their supporters liked – but they would then play their football in the final third. You could hardly call the likes of Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman cloggers, and aided by the dynamism of Tim Cahill and the new breed of swashbuckling, attacking full-backs, Leighton Baines and a young Seamus Coleman, they were often an exciting and effective side to watch.
Just as the game has moved on since then, so have Everton and their tactics. Ross Barkley, arguably the Blues’ most-gifted home-grown hero after Wayne Rooney, who also progressed from the academy ranks to the first team under Moyes, was the player namechecked in the original ’School of Science – it’s on its way back’ song when it first emerged under Martinez and it was the Wavertree-born midfielder who netted what looked like being Everton’s winning goal on their first Premier League trip to Bournemouth – a fixture this correspondent was also present for – just over a decade ago on November 28, 2015.
Leading 2-0 through goals by Ramiro Funes Mori (25) and Romelu Lukaku (36), going into the final 10 minutes of the game against the Cherries (sound familiar?), the Blues somehow surrendered their lead as Adam Smith and Junior Stanislas netted to ensure the contest went into stoppage time level. In scenes even more delirious than when Jack Grealish netted on Tuesday, Barkley restored Martinez’s men’s lead on 95 minutes, celebrating with jubilant Blues supporters who ran on to the pitch in delight, and that should have been it.
Ross Barkley is congratulated by a fan during the match between Bournemouth and Everton at the Vitality Stadium on November 28, 2015
Ross Barkley is congratulated by a fan during the match between Bournemouth and Everton at the Vitality Stadium on November 28, 2015
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However, there was to be a further sting in the tail as Stanislas equalised again in the 98th minute and there was even time for another attack in which Eddie Howe’s sight could have won it. From that moment on, Everton’s long trips to Dorset in the Premier League would be treks of repeated misery with a 2-0 FA Cup success the following February providing their solitary respite.
Seven defeats out of the next eight visits followed, including five losses in a row before this last time of asking, a wretched run that included a 3-0 loss on November 12, 2022, just four days after Frank Lampard had made 11 changes for a Carabao Cup tie and was served up a 4-1 drubbing; captain Coleman’s calamitous last-minute own goal to prompt a 2-1 reversal just three minutes after Beto had equalised on March 30, 2024; and losing 1-0 on January 4, 2025, a game that proved to be Sean Dyche’s last in charge as he was sacked after picking up 17 points at the halfway mark of the historic final season at Goodison Park.
Martinez, Lampard and Dyche were just three of the eight managers in as many years under Farhad Moshiri’s ownership with their variety of football philosophies creating a Frankenstein’s monster of a squad that often produced equally as ugly results. Moyes in contrast – who as it happens has never lost a Premier League game at Bournemouth – is now building back up a style of play that is effective with the Blues getting another monkey off their back just eight days after they served up a first Old Trafford success under the 62-year-old’s stewardship.
Although they’ve still got the 6ft 6in Jake O’Brien – who was so dominant against the Cherries back in his natural centre-back position – and his big throws, at a time when many in the division are going more route one, Everton are indeed embracing the game’s silk as well as steel once more with creative talents like Grealish, Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
There will be the fair shares of ups and downs on this season’s ride and Everton remain very much a work in progress, at the start of this particular journey. But they showed again they are moving in the right direction, and these moments should be enjoyed by the team and their supporters alike when they come along.