The Chris Beesley talking points after Everton went down to a late 2-0 defeat at table-topping Arsenal in the Premier League
Everton's Portuguese striker #09 Beto (C) vies with Arsenal's Brazilian defender #06 Gabriel Magalhaes (L) and Arsenal's Italian defender #33 Riccardo Calafiori during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Everton at the Emirates Stadium in London on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Everton's Portuguese striker #09 Beto (C) vies with Arsenal's Brazilian defender #06 Gabriel Magalhaes (L) and Arsenal's Italian defender #33 Riccardo Calafiori during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Everton at the Emirates Stadium in London on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
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When David Moyes came back to Everton, he identified Jordan Pickford, Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski as the spine that he wanted to build a team around. Subsequently, all three of them penned new long-term contracts with the club following the move from Goodison Park to Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Pickford’s display at the Emirates Stadium has already been discussed, and he’ll continue to have far more good days than bad, but Branthwaite and Tarkowski is the centre-back partnership that seems to bring the best out of Everton. The pair of them thrived together in the former’s breakthrough season of 2023/24 and had recently rekindled their pairing.
It’s mutually beneficial for the two players, who are a decade apart in age. Tarkowski, 33, brings his experience and leadership, but then Branthwaite, 23, makes his older partner look more assured and in turn, his physical presence, pace and assuredness on the ball all raise Vitalii Mykolenko’s game too.
Moyes was once willing to pay £30million to take Tarkowski to West Ham United from Burnley but he ultimately ended up leaving the Clarets on a Bosman-style free transfer when his contract at Turf Moor expired and rewarded the Blues with 109 consecutive Premier League appearances before undergoing surgery on a hamstring injury picked up against Manchester City last April. Nevertheless, he recovered to play every game so far this term before missing out at the Emirates Stadium.
Branthwaite of course has proven less durable of late but after having him and Tarkowski back at the heart of defence for the consecutive wins over Newcastle United and Burnley, and while for long periods, Jake O’Brien and Michael Keane proved able deputies here, Evertonians will be keen to see their most valuable asset back in action, even if his minutes have to be managed.
Fox in the box
Quarter of a century ago, around the time that Arsenal were building their last truly great side, Francis Jeffers swapped Everton for the Gunners, a move that he admitted to Wayne Rooney last week ultimately “killed” his career. At the time, Arsene Wenger had high hopes for the young Scouser who – in an era when Premier League sides still generally played with two up top – had struck up an intelligent strike partnership with Highbury old boy Kevin Campbell (whose foundation was in the spotlight here with young coach Olivia Watson the second recipient of the award named in his memory).
The Frenchman dubbed Jeffers his 'ox in the box' but as we know, despite the bright start to his career, it didn’t work out for him either in north London or back on Merseyside when, after Moyes’ appointment, the Glaswegian gave him a second chance on loan.
A prolific marksman in Portugal, former Everton target Viktor Gyokeres has had an up and down debut season at Arsenal but he didn’t need a second invitation to take his chance when presented with a golden opportunity from close range after Pickford’s flapping.
Blues will be more concerned with what’s going on – or not as the case may be – up front for their side, though. Beto's physical presence and ability to provide the side with a focal point have seen him given the nod in recent weeks after Thierno Barry had previously appeared to have turned a corner after a slow start in the Premier League.
Between the pair of them, they’re perhaps just about doing enough to muddle through but for now they still produce more questions than answers. Moyes broke Everton’s transfer record three years on the trot first time around on strikers as he sought solutions and whether the side qualify for Europe or not, he might be tempted to look for more firepower again this summer after this showing.
Record breaker
Pickford’s desperate foray forward for Everton’s corner-kick in stoppage time was unnecessary. England’s number one played as a tough-tackling, goalscoring midfielder in his youth, but unless you possess the incredible technique of Alisson Becker to head the ball in (although there were no fans present to witness his famous goal at West Bromwich Albion, which a bit like the Blues’ only win at the Emirates Stadium behind closed doors feels a bit like a coronavirus-induced fever dream), keepers messing about trying to ‘do a Jimmy Glass’ tend to just get in the way.
The Blues custodian didn’t just cost his side a second goal on the break, he also cost his club a coveted Premier League record as Arsenal’s teenage sensation Max Dowman fared much better on the break than Everton substitute Daniel Amokachi when presented with a similar chance in the dying seconds of the 1995 FA Cup final when Peter Schmeichel – a player who’d go on to become the first Premier League keeper to score when he later netted for Aston Villa at Goodison Park – tried a similar trick at the old Wembley Stadium.
For almost 21 years, Everton’s James Vaughan held the record for being the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer after he netted in a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on April 10, 2005, aged 16 years and 271 days in the same game that a certain Mikel Arteta struck for Moyes’ side for the first time.
Pickford’s failed gambled now means that record has been surrendered to Dowman, who was born on New Year’s Eve 2009, over seven months after the Scot took the Blues to their last FA Cup final.