Everton full analysis after the Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium
ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley has covered Everton and Liverpool both in the Premier League and abroad since 2005. He cut his teeth in professional sports journalism at the Ellesmere Port Pioneer and then the Welsh edition of the Daily Post, where he also covered Manchester United. Prior to that he worked on the student newspaper Pluto at the University of Central Lancashire, a role in which he first encountered David Moyes. Chris is well-known for his sartorial elegance and the aforementioned Scottish manager once enquired of him at a press conference: "Is that your dad's suit you've got on?" while the tradition continued in 2023 with new Blues boss Sean Dyche complimenting him on his smart appearance.
David Moyes, Harrison Armstrong, and James Garner celebrate following the team's victory in the Premier League match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium on August 24, 2025
(Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Iliman Ndiaye had already written himself into Everton history by netting not just the last goal in men’s first team football at Goodison Park but the last two and here, in the first competitive match at Hill Dickinson Stadium, he completed a unique hat-trick with the first goal at the Blues’ new home on the banks of the Mersey.
Many of the Senegal international’s strikes in his maiden campaign on Merseyside came at the end of some fancy footwork, but this was a clinical one-touch finish with Jack Grealish not just taking on the quick feet role but the left wing position that Ndiaye occupied for most of 2024/25.
In contrast, the scorer was being deployed on the opposite flank where he has often played for his country but an area that has been a problem position for Everton all summer after loan pair Jack Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom both returned to their parent clubs after underwhelming contributions.
With the Blues finally understood to be closing in on a move for Southampton wonderkid Tyler Dibling, who occupies that area of the pitch, in what would be their biggest deal of the summer, the goal also provided a timely reminder of the talent already at David Moyes’ disposal.
For Ndiaye though, it was also the fulfilment of an aspiration he outlined over 13 months ago when signing from Olympique Marseille.
Back in July 2024, he proclaimed: “It’s funny because someone said to me, ‘Imagine you scoring the first goal at the new stadium.’ It would be a quiz question for so long, ‘Who scored the first goal for Everton at the new stadium?’ “At that moment, my daughter, who can’t really talk yet, said, ‘Dada’! Great answer! That’s my target.”
That dream – like Everton’s to build this new home – has now come true.
England’s number one
To preview the game, the ECHO was among journalists who spoke to Jordan Pickford for the Sunday newspapers and when asked about the relentless scrutiny he faces from some quarters as England number one, the Everton goalkeeper was unfazed, insisting there will always be questions and remarking: “You’re always going to have that, you’ve got to thrive on that and you’ve got to step up to the plate.”
Stepping up to the plate is exactly what Pickford, the player who has arguably done more than any other individual in recent years to ensure the Blues move into Hill Dickinson Stadium as a Premier League club, did here, not just in his general play that was smart and alert throughout, but at two pivotal, potentially game-changing moments.
As much as he is diligently assembling a squad possessing additional creative talent, Moyes wants to build his new-look Everton team around three existing linchpins at the back.
One of those, the club’s most valuable asset Jarrad Branthwaite – who signed a new five-year deal this summer – is currently out with a hamstring injury but with outings for club captain Seamus Coleman few and far between these days, one of the others, the team’s regular on-field leader James Tarkowski was guilty of an outrageous back pass here that almost ruined the hosts’ party.
Thankfully, Pickford, the third member of the triumvirate, was even more alert to the chance than recipient Matt O’Riley – one of many players linked with a move to Everton this window – and quick as a flash he was off his line and devouring what had initially looked like a golden opportunity.
Several more smart saves followed but when Danny Welbeck stepped up to try and convert what would have been a goal to shred Evertonian nerves in the latter stages, Pickford, who denied both Anthony Gordon and Erling Haaland from the penalty spot last season, was equal to his low effort.
There have been continued scurrilous claims from the haters that the Blues ace should be displaced from the undisputed position he has held with his country since autumn 2017, shortly after his move to Merseyside, but in truth the chasing pack are a long way behind him.
Dean Henderson might have enjoyed a couple of big moments for Crystal Palace at Wembley this year in the FA Cup final and Community Shield victories, but he was yet another understudy to fluff his lines when an England chance came his way against Senegal while James Trafford marked his big return to Manchester City with a blooper in the home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.
As the Everton terrace chant goes, “Jordan Pickford is dynamite,” and he’s just exploded more of the myths when it comes to the Three Lions pecking order while ensuring that he marked the Blues’ historic day with a clean sheet.
Numbers game
Writing in his programme notes, Everton manager David Moyes spoke about his desire to bring “the soul of Goodison Park with us to Hill Dickinson Stadium.” With the steep stands close to the pitch and intimate atmosphere, the Blues did just that.
Visitors as diverse as Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Paul Scholes all sang the praises of Goodison Park’s atmosphere over the years, with the latter pair observing that despite the reputation Everton’s neighbours have earned through their big European nights, ‘The Grand Old Lady’ was always more intimidating than Anfield. Such claims were reinforced here as when Z-Cars blared out before kick-off, there was a deafening wall of noise that greeted the teams on their arrival.
After years in football purgatory, Everton came perilously close to hell but here their passionate supporters enjoyed a royal blue heaven by the banks of the Mersey. When it came to ‘souls’ there were also over 12,000 more than Goodison Park could hold in recent years.
The 51,759 attendance was Everton’s biggest for an opening league game of a season for 52 years. It was the 20th time in their history that the Blues have had a crowd of 50,000 plus for their first home league fixture, but their first since 52,348 watched them defeat Manchester United on August 16, 1972.
The first such occasion was when 53,856 saw Everton lose 4-1 to Arsenal on August 28, 1937, and that game against the Red Devils was the 19th time in 36 years they’d reach such a mark and the 14th occasion in 18 years from when they won promotion in 1954, which was the first of four 60,000 plus figures on opening league games.
If such figures are now the new normal, the Blues, who have only once enjoyed an average attendance north of 50,000 over a season (51,603 for the 1962/63 title-winning campaign), can play in front of their biggest regular crowds, at a venue which financial experts reckon will bring them an additional £60million a year in revenue.