A look at the national media coverage from Everton's historic first day on the banks of the Mersey
Jack Grealish shows appreciation to the fans as he is substituted off during the Premier League match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Jack Grealish shows appreciation to the fans as he is substituted off during the Premier League match between Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
The first chapter in Everton’s new story was a happy one as the Blues christened Hill Dickinson Stadium with a win over Brighton. Goals from Iliman Ndiaye and James Garner gave the hosts victory but it was Jack Grealish who stole the show - and the headlines.
And after years of turmoil at the club, the fresh start was heralded as a triumph across the national media. In the Times, Paul Joyce focused on the impact of Grealish and the progress it is hoped his signing and the new ground represent.
He said: “Everton always hoped this state-of-the-art arena would bring a change in fortune and there is no denying, especially in the first half, that they enjoyed a slice of good luck against wasteful opposition.
“Yet the outcome was all-important, with a momentous afternoon marked by what already felt like a crucial success given the slapdash nature of last Monday’s insipid 1-0 defeat away to Leeds United.”
His most poignant line was on Hill Dickinson, which he wrote: “Above everything else, it is a proper football stadium.”
A new home needs a new hero and, in Grealish, Everton may have found one, Andy Hunter wrote in the Guardian: “On a sun-kissed, historic afternoon for a football club and a city, Everton delivered a win worthy of christening the £800m arena. Grealish illuminated the performance with two assists, for Iliman Ndiaye and James Garner, and departed to a standing ovation when substituted in the 94th minute. Evertonians have been craving a hero, their new stadium needs a star, and the 29‑year‑old is desperate to regain his England place in a World Cup year. The early evidence indicates a good fit all round.”
Dominic King followed suit in the Mail, writing: “What mattered was seeing Jack Grealish show why he can be the hero Evertonians have been aching for, his dancing feet and shimmying from the left flank generating a snap and crackle around the stadium that eventually made Brighton go pop.
“Hurtzeler grumbled that Everton's opening goal 'came out of nowhere' but that's why David Moyes wanted to sign Grealish, so he could be the man to change the mood and change games; this occasion was never going to fluster a Champions League winner and how he relished centre stage.”
In the Telegraph, Chris Bascombe highlighted Grealish’s star quality but shared the praise with those the Manchester City loanee enabled to rise to the occasion.
He wrote: “Whatever Grealish’s frustrations at City over the past 12 months, in this company he visibly appears of greater stature, more mature and effortlessly trustworthy in possession. Give it a few months and the immediate instinct of each teammate will be to give him the ball knowing he treats it with such care.
"His combinations with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, especially, and Ndiaye add a dimension to Everton which has been chronically lacking in recent years where pragmatism was all about resolute defence – what Moyes called ‘Everton things’ – and flair was a pipedream.”
In the ECHO, Grealish was a major theme - but this was also a game in which, in Ndiaye and Jordan Pickford, old heroes rose to the occasion.
And there was no escaping the headline of the day - that Everton had the perfect start to a new chapter in the club’s history: “For years it felt as though Everton could not have anything nice. As the club fought points deductions and backroom crises to avoid a drop from the Premier League, there were times when the rise of the club’s state-of-the-art stadium felt like a cruel irony. Every success was tarnished by the threat of bigger problems.
“But the new dawn supporters looked to during those challenging campaigns is now here. And with it, the Blues have a start they could only have dreamt of.”