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Before the Whistle · 18 September 2026

Ipswich Town (h): a team guessed, a score predicted

Ipswich, who have conceded in every game, visit the dock as Everton look to turn an unbeaten start into a win before the break.

Unashamedly written by a machine · The suffering is real

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Everton go into the last game before a three-week break unbeaten but with one league win in four, and David Moyes said on Friday he would rather have turned some of those draws into wins. Ipswich Town are the visitors a side in that state should want, level on points, scoring in nearly every game and conceding in all of them. Tyler Dibling's midweek should keep him in the side, and Thierno Barry starts up front because there is nobody else. Win, and October can be about football rather than about who owns the club and will not say.

Where We Left It

Everton have played six games, won three, drawn three and lost none. In the league that is one win and three draws, six points and ninth place, with five goals scored and three conceded. They are hard to beat and have not yet been easy to watch. The cup has gone better. Charly Alcaraz beat Wolves on Wednesday with an eightieth-minute goal, three minutes after he came on. Tyler Dibling made it, on his best night since his £35m move. The fourth-round draw then brought Newcastle, the holders, to the dock in the last week of October.

Away from the pitch nothing has moved. The owners have said nothing on the record since the Financial Times reported, more than two weeks ago, that they were looking for new investors. The squad has one recognised striker. Jordan Pickford may or may not be carrying a knock that nobody at the club will name. Jarrad Branthwaite sat on the bench in midweek to protect his hamstrings and has since been called up to play as many as four games for England in eleven days. On Friday a reporter put it to David Moyes that this is the club's longest unbeaten start since Carlo Ancelotti's. That is true. Moyes was not celebrating: "I'm pleased with the players but I would have loved to have turned some of those draws into wins."

The Week in Brief

Moyes took Friday's press conference himself, having left Wednesday night's to Alan Irvine. The coverage still does not say why. His team news was of the ordinary kind. Harrison Armstrong missed the Wolves game with a minor injury, not a rest, and remains a doubt: "We're still waiting on Harrison a little bit to see how he is. We expect him to be okay." Merlin Röhl is "not available yet. Hopefully he'll be ready at the end of the international break." Christian Nørgaard remains the summer signing nobody has seen. That leaves sixteen or so fit outfield players, again. Moyes has chosen to call this a virtue: a smaller squad, he said, is a chance to look after the ones he has. Nobody asked, or at least nobody reported asking, about Jordan Pickford's fitness, about Dibling against Brennan Johnson, or about the ownership.

The morning's news came from St George's Park. Thomas Tuchel named a 27-man England squad for Spain, Czechia twice and Croatia. Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite are in it. James Garner, who had a hernia operation in the summer, is not, which Moyes said he understood. Nor is Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, whom Moyes called unlucky. Branthwaite has one cap, won as a substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina in June, and played ten games for his club last season. Moyes sounded like a father at a school gate: "I was hearing that he's only got one England cap and it was only for 28 minutes. I'm hoping he doesn't play four games, that's for sure! But I'd be thrilled if Jarrad gets in. He's got potential to be a really good player and he's showing lots of that at the moment." Branthwaite told the Echo it was "an amazing achievement. After last season my aspiration was to get into the squad." The BBC reported Tuchel calling the choice between him and Levi Colwill "just a 51% on Jarrad".

Moyes spoke longest about Dibling. "It can take time," he said. "Tyler has probably found it quite tough. He's now beginning to show his teeth a little bit and show us exactly what he can do." When he is pleased with a player he talks about the club instead, and he did: "I think there's a lot of Everton's culture, of what we need, that he still has to find and show for us. I think he's beginning to show that, and I think he showed that on a brilliant recovery tackle in the game the other night." Asked whether it takes a certain kind of person to succeed at Everton he said "I believe so", and traced the line back to Howard Kendall and Peter Reid. Dibling gave the Echo his own account of Wednesday, shorter and better. He had been, he said, "how do I say this without swearing! — not giving a thing about anyone and just believing in myself."

Garner gave the dressing room's view of the fixture. "1,000 per cent, yeah, it is a big game and it is the last game before the lads go off on international duty… you either go out on a high or go out on a low and we want to go out on a high and keep the unbeaten run going." On his early return from surgery he said: "I am probably back earlier than what I should be, but that is just the type of person that I am." Saturday's game is given over to Everton in the Community. Moyes said it does "a brilliant job". On the last month's evidence it is also the part of the club that communicates best.

The Visitors

Ipswich Town went down in 2025 and came straight back up as Championship runners-up on the last day of last season. Then Kieran McKenna, who had taken them from League One to the Premier League, stepped away from management altogether in June, for his family. Gary O'Neil arrived from Strasbourg on a three-year deal and brought some of Strasbourg with him. Julio Enciso and Abdoul Ouattara came in a summer that also brought Abdul Fatawu from Leicester and Exequiel Palacios from Bayer Leverkusen. This is not the Ipswich Everton last met, and it has not played like a promoted side hoping to keep things quiet.

The right-hand column tells you what kind of side they are. They have scored in five of their six games and conceded in all six. Their four league matches have produced seventeen goals. Everton's have produced eight. They have beaten both sides of their own weight and lost to both big clubs. O'Neil said as much on Friday: the two wins were 'excellent', and Liverpool and Manchester United belong to the 'big club category'. The goals come from everywhere, so nobody has more than two. Emersonn and Chuba Akpom have them up front, Marcelino Núñez in the cups, and Leif Davis, the left-back, has two in the league already. Michael Ball picked out that last detail in the Echo when he warned that Ipswich's full-backs "like to bomb on". Remember it at about ten past three, when Davis is standing on Everton's eighteen-yard line with a great deal of grass behind him.

The other thing in that column is the clock. Five of Ipswich's twelve goals this season have come in the ninetieth minute or later: Jack Clarke's winner against Sunderland, Zian Flemming's winner at Selhurst Park, Núñez's third against Leicester, and Akpom twice in lost causes. This side keeps playing. Everton were two up on Ipswich the last time the clubs met and did not win.

O'Neil has had a hard week. His father died in the days before the game, and he spoke about it on Thursday with dignity. "The last 24 hours have been tough, but I think I'm pretty good at separating… I've managed to be there for my family. I've managed to be here for the team." On the football he was candid. He would like his side to have more control, but few newly promoted sides get that. Teams come after Ipswich, he said, and Ipswich hurt them when they do, especially down the flanks. He does not want to lose that, but he wants his side a bit more solid. There 'might be some changes to the starting XI' from the team that lost to Arsenal. Jack Taylor is the only injury, Azor Matusiwa is available but short of training, and Emersonn is fine. He listed Everton's strengths like a man who had done the reading: defenders who deal with everything into the box, the set pieces, Barry a threat up top, talented wide players, Dewsbury-Hall at ten. He was generous about Moyes, whose twelve hundred games he was asked to imagine matching. For a young manager, which is how he sees himself, to go there and get one over on him would be pretty good. He has 'massive belief in the group'. The Hill Dickinson Stadium is, he thinks, probably the only Premier League ground he has never been to.

The Selection Questions

Start with the question Alan Irvine set on Wednesday night, when he said Dibling had made sure "the manager's got a tough decision to make for the next game". Everything Moyes said on Friday sounded like a man who has made it. He does not talk for five minutes about a player's teeth, his belly and the inheritance of Howard Kendall and then put him back on the bench. The one thing he singled out, the recovery tackle, is what he has always demanded of a wide player before trusting him in a league game. Johnson's half-hour through the middle against Wolves softens the blow. It lets Moyes call Johnson cover for two positions rather than the man who lost one. So Dibling keeps his place. The ground will approve loudly. The first time he stops on the ball and looks for a pass he does not need, it will let him know about that too.

The left side is harder. Jack Grealish played seventy-seven minutes on Wednesday in his first start since coming back. He was the Echo's best player of the first half and, by general agreement, blowing a little by the end. Asked on Friday what he wants from him, Moyes answered in the terms of last autumn: protect the ball, get the team up the pitch, "I need them to help us with assists… I hope that he can do that for us." Tyrique George is the alternative. He started at Tottenham, went past two men within a minute of coming on against Wolves, and has three weeks to rest afterwards. So does Grealish, and that settles it. With no game until 11 October there is no next match to save anyone for. Moyes has said he intends to "use Jack and then adapt ourselves around Jack", and will surely do so at home to a defence conceding two and a half a match. Grealish to start, George to finish.

At the back the break settles the matter for the same reason. Branthwaite and James Tarkowski sat out the cup tie together and come back in together. Jake O'Brien, who was solid in the middle on Wednesday by the forum's account and a 5 by the Echo's, returns to the bench with his argument half made. The one wrinkle is that Moyes is about to hand Branthwaite to England for four games he would rather he did not play. That is a reason to get ninety good minutes out of him first. In midfield Garner plays, because Garner always plays. The second place depends on Armstrong. "We expect him to be okay" is not the language of a certain starter, and Hackney has had a run-out and a compliment from Moyes this week ("he does well every time he plays for us"). Hackney, then, with Armstrong among the substitutes if he is fit to be.

Up front there is no question because there is no alternative. Thierno Barry had a bad Wednesday. He had a six-yard header saved and a one-on-one smothered, and he was off before the hour. The forum has stopped blaming the recruitment and started blaming him. Moyes confirmed on Friday that Alcaraz up front has been discussed ("We've thought about it"). He added, in a sentence kind to one player and not quite to the other, "We need goals and we need people who can score, and on the night we needed Charly." But Barry starts. He has four goals this season. The Echo's analysis after Tottenham had him second only to Haaland for the quality of chances he gets on the end of. The defence in front of him on Saturday has let in ten in four league games and four more on Tuesday. If there is an afternoon this autumn for Barry to stop being a storyline, this is it.

Where the Game Is Won

Behind the full-backs. Ipswich attack with theirs, and O'Neil has said he will not give that up. Davis has two league goals from left-back, which tells you where he spends his afternoons. Dibling and Ainsley Maitland-Niles will have to decide between them who goes with him and who stays. It cuts the other way with more force. A side whose full-backs are in the opposing half has space behind them, and Everton's two best carriers of the ball will both be standing in it. Grealish draws fouls for a living. Dibling, in his new mood, runs at people. The first twenty minutes should show whether Everton mean to play through Ipswich or around them. The answer ought to be around.

Set pieces. O'Neil mentioned Everton's twice, unprompted, and he was right to. Tarkowski, Branthwaite and Garner's delivery are all back, and open-play goals are hard to come by, so the dead ball is Everton's most reliable route. Ipswich have yet to keep a clean sheet against anyone. At Old Trafford, when the pressure came, they gave away a penalty and an own goal. If the game is level at the hour this is the likeliest way it stops being so.

The last half-hour. Moyes's substitutes have changed three games already this season, most recently against Wolves. His bench on Saturday should hold George, Johnson and Alcaraz. That is as much attacking change as this squad can offer. But the final minutes are also where Ipswich do their best work: five goals at ninety minutes or beyond in six games, two of them winners. Everton lost a two-goal lead to this opponent sixteen months ago, on one of the last afternoons at Goodison. Enciso scored from long range, and he has since left Ipswich and come back. George Hirst equalised late.

The Mood on the Board

The People's Forum has no view of Ipswich Town. In three days and some three hundred and fifty posts the opposition came up for ticket sales and once in passing, from someone who thought the game mattered more than usual because the transfer window had left no room for slip-ups. Nobody posted a score. Nobody named O'Neil. The board is not complacent about home games against promoted sides, having watched too many of them. This is closer to superstition. The fixture everyone expects you to win is the one you do not discuss, as you do not mention how well the car has been running.

It talked about Dibling instead, with something near tenderness. There is a song already, to the tune of Winter Wonderland, which scans if you sing it quickly. One argument runs that the Southampton version of him was "a teenage Jack Grealish with more goals" and that anything like that would make him a bargain. And because this is the People's Forum the inoculation against hope came at once. He was seen to look sideways at the manager, so "a loan to Preston awaits". His hunched shoulders tell a story and he is "obviously off in January". This is how the board shows affection. It has been hurt before, by wingers in particular, and would like it noted that it saw this one coming too. Moyes got his due for starting him and for the substitution that won the tie. The same posters, in the next breath, filed Dibling's lost year under the old charge that Moyes does not trust the young. Both things are held to be true.

Branthwaite's call-up was met with pride and, within the hour, with the joke that was always coming: so long, Branthy, and congratulations to the owners on another boat. One poster called him the best the club has had in the position since Ratcliffe, and better on the ball. Nobody argued, which on this board amounts to a motion carried. Maitland-Niles remains the summer's pleasant surprise. On Barry the mood has settled into something more honest than Wednesday night's. His touch is not good enough yet, and that is on the club and not on him, because the club left him to carry the season alone. Grealish split the room, as he does. Some think his five per cent more care of the ball is worth the money. Others would rather still have the player sold to pay for the summer. It ended with two members insulting each other and a third complaining that the place was turning into social media.

Underneath all of it, the owners. The longest thread of the week concerned an open letter to Dan Friedkin that has gone unanswered, and it held the whole range of what this support now feels. Posters were angry at assets sold and not replaced. One summed up the window in a line that would do for its epitaph: "so we ended up a striker and probably a full-back short". Others mocked the idea that a letter from small shareholders would trouble a billionaire. The coldest reading had the model as spending enough to stay up and selling the young when their value peaks. The Times line about the multi-club "solution" was thought to smell wrong. The consortium rumour came with its own pinch of salt. The post that best caught the mood going into Saturday was the quietest: "Personally, I am just going to try to enjoy the football this season. Qué sera sera." From this board, after this summer, that is very nearly optimism.

What It Means

The arithmetic first, with the usual health warning. A win takes Everton to nine points from five games. On the table as it stands only Arsenal and Manchester City have more than eight. Nine could therefore mean anything from third place on Saturday evening to staying exactly where they are, depending on Leeds, Hull, Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford and Liverpool, none of whom can be relied on to cooperate. The position matters less than the shape of it. Two wins and three draws going into a three-week break, unbeaten in seven, a cup tie to come and a winger to talk about: that buys Moyes an untroubled October and lets the conversation be about football. The Echo's analysis after Tottenham said as much. Win the home games and this is a start to be proud of.

Anything else makes the break a very long three weeks. A fourth draw in five would make the unbeaten record look like what its critics already call it, an inability to win dressed as an inability to lose. A home defeat by a promoted side would hand twenty-two days of empty back pages to the only other Everton story there is: who owns the club, who wants to, and why no one will say. The team has so far been the owners' best argument. It would be careless to stop now.

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