Moyes Sends Everton Into Premier League Standings Run-In With Four Games Left
Everton enter the premier league standings run-in with four games to go, and their schedule could still alter the title race, European places and relegation fight. David Moyes has his team 11th, but the final stretch against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur now carries far more weight than Everton’s position suggests.
Moyes and the Hill Dickinson test
Moyes returned as Everton manager in January 2025, and the shape of the season has changed enough that the club can still reach Europe for the first time since 2017. That remains a long shot, but Everton are only four points behind Brentford in seventh and five points behind Bournemouth in sixth, which keeps them close enough to matter when the table tightens.
Manchester City were due at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night, with City carrying two games in hand on Arsenal after Arsenal beat Fulham on Saturday and opened a six-point lead. Pep Guardiola’s side also still had Bournemouth on the penultimate weekend and Aston Villa on the final day, so Everton’s home game sat inside a title race that was already under pressure.
Arsenal, City, and Everton
That meeting mattered because the top of the table had become a three-game problem for City and a four-game problem for Everton. If City dropped points in Liverpool, the gap to Arsenal could widen further, and Everton would have been the side in front of them at a ground where points are now being counted twice.
Arteta’s line after Arsenal beat Fulham summed up the mood at the top: “This is maybe a year too early for us.” Arsenal led by six points, but City still had the extra fixtures that can change the picture fast, and Everton were scheduled to stand in the middle of that.
Tottenham and the bottom fight
Tottenham’s trip to Everton on the final day carried a different kind of pressure. Spurs were one point above the relegation zone after a 2-1 win against Aston Villa, so Everton’s closing match could still reach into the bottom half of the table as well as the European spots above it.
That is the unusual part of Everton’s season. A club sitting 11th can still shape three separate races because the final two opponents are sitting in the title picture and just above danger at the other end.
Form has only sharpened the contradiction. Everton had drawn once and lost twice since beating Chelsea 3-0 before the last international break, with stoppage-time winners conceded against Liverpool and West Ham United in that run, yet they still had enough of a defensive base to stay in the conversation.
Heading into matchweek 35, Everton had conceded the third-fewest goals in the league with 41 in 34 games, while Jordan Pickford was third in the league for goals prevented. At the same time, their expected goals against was 50.5, the seventh-highest in the league, which suggests the structure has held better than the chances against them have.
For Everton, the practical next step is simple: the table will be shaped by what they do against City and Tottenham, not by where they sit today. Four games remain, and the points around them still have room to move in more than one direction.
