The Gameweek 24 inquest continues with Brighton and Hove Albion 1-1 Everton.
FOUR CENTRE-HALVES, MOYESY? THAT’S INSANE
The big Everton team news question going into Saturday’s deadline concerned the centre-halves. With Jarrad Branthwaite (£5.3m) back from injury, Michael Keane (£4.7m) available after suspension, and Jake O’Brien (£4.9m) and James Tarkowski (£5.8m) the centre-back partnership in recent games, who would David Moyes go for?
The answer? All of them.
Branthwaite and O’Brien were his full-backs, with Nathan Patterson (£4.4m) dropping to the bench and Vitaliy Mykolenko (£4.9m) absent.
Is this the way forward, then, with Keane’s xMins not as dented by Branthwaite’s return as expected?
Not necessarily. According to Moyes, operating with four centre-halves wasn’t the original plan and Mykolenko’s injury-enforced absence altered the set-up.
“I’ve always had it in my mind it would be there [as an option]. You know, Pep does it as well, doesn’t he? He’s thought about it at different times now.
“It was different for us. It was an injury which caused us to make the change. It wasn’t the plan on Friday afternoon. Myko just picked up an injury in training, which altered everything, really.” – David Moyes on whether
While Moyes wouldn’t say who would have missed out had Mykolenko been fit, the usually on-the-money El Bobble (who typically provides a reliable heads-up on Everton injuries, team news etc) suggests it was Keane who was going to be among the substitutes.
David Moyes recalls Jarrad Branthwaite back to the starting up after returning from injury. Michael Keane, who was set to be on the bench, has also been handed a start with Vitalli Mykolenko ruled out. Jake O’Brien replaces Nathan Patterson 🔵 pic.twitter.com/GRdMsOycTr
— The Bobble (@ElBobble) January 31, 2026
On top of that, Moyes hasn’t ruled out recruiting a right-back on deadline day, which would further muddy the waters.
“We still feel as if possibly we’ll be needing a right-back. Jarrad Branthwaite has been injured for the best part of six months, maybe more. It’s meant that he could easily cover at left-back and I always had that in my head if we needed it – or he could be the number one left-back if I had better playing centre-halves. Michael Keane’s played really well at centre-half for me today. Played well again today, and Jarrad went left-back.
“You lose a little bit because you might lose the [attacking] ability and that’s why we changed even late on, we brought Patterson on, who got me two or three crosses in the box, where maybe the other ones don’t give me that ability. So, there’s a little bit of balance and when you do these things as a manager, you have to sometimes take away something which they might offer to get something [else], which we did.” – David Moyes on his back four
We’ve yet to hear how serious Mykolenko’s injury is.
DEWSBURY-HALL BACK IN THE XI – AND GOING CLOSE TO SCORING
It wasn’t just Branthwaite making a return to the starting XI but also Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£4.9m).
One of the more popular £5.0m-ish midfielders before his mid-December injury, this was his record before his hamstring pinged:
- Starts: 14
- Goals: 4
- Assists: 3
- Bonus points: 10
- DefCon points: 6
- Points per match: 5.3
Back in the ’10’ role again at the Amex, he twice went very close to scoring, firstly sending an effort agonisingly wide from the edge of the box before firing a glorious chance at the boot of Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) from eight yards.
One to re-add to the budget midfielder watchlist, especially if Everton do end up getting a Double Gameweek 26.
An even cheaper Everton midfielder made his fourth successive start in the shape of Harrison Armstrong (£4.5m), although his game-time doesn’t look quite so assured.
James Garner (£5.2m) meanwhile racked up DefCon points for the eighth time in nine Gameweeks.
A FAIR RESULT?
This was a bit of a strange game at the Amex. Brighton made a blistering start, having seven shots in the opening 20 minutes, before failing to register another effort until the 72nd minute!
In fact, Everton didn’t register their first attempt of the game until the second half, so there were long periods of dormancy.
Danny Welbeck (£6.2m), Pascal Gross (£5.5m) and Kaoru Mitoma (£6.1m) all could have scored early on but it was against the run of play when Gross broke the deadlock with 17 minutes of normal time to go.
Gross was in the more advanced ’10’ role for the second successive match. He’s now started four straight league games, too.
Yankuba Minteh (£5.7m) has gone the other way; his last start came back in Gameweek 19. Fabian Hurzeler hinted recently that Albion were looking after his fitness.
Those two chances for Dewsbury-Hall, plus good opportunities for Tarkowski and Keane, meant substitute Beto‘s (£5.0m) late equaliser was probably warranted.
That’s now a combined six goals in as many Gameweeks from the two much-maligned Everton forwards!
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Rosenior on his rotation + “world-class” Enzo
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Bruno injury latest + why Szoboszlai didn’t get an assist
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Saka injury update + will Farke replace £3.9m Darlow?
