Next Up: Manchester City vs Everton

Another unwanted hiatus to the Premier League programme is past and on Saturday, Everton will be revisiting The Etihad Stadium, where Manchester City, and especially Erling Haaland, appear to have largely recovered their Mojo.

Their giant centre-forward has already scored an incredible 12 goals so far this season, and has returned home from the Norway team early so he can rest in anticipation of Saturday's testing encounter with the resurgent Toffees under David Moyes.

But, because of the ridiculous loan rules, Everton's primary catalyst Jack Grealish will be sitting in the stands for this one, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall reinstated after another ridiculous episode that saw him banned from playing in the win over Crystal Palace after being booked for talking a free-kick too quickly. That goal Dewsbury-Hall scored against Wolves was simply brilliant... but it's a rarity — he just doesn't score many goals.

After 7 games, Manchester City are remarkably only 2 points above Everton in the nascent Premier League table, and a win for the visitors will see the order reversed.  But the challenge of securing a win at the Etihad is something that has largely eluded David Moyes and Everton for many years.

Indeed, the last win there dates back to a previous era when Tim Cahill set the tone with a goal after just 4 minutes and Leighton Baines followed up with a simply exquisite shot — curled in off his wrong foot! — after just 18 minutes. That gave Moyes what he needed to cling on for a fantastic win... proving it can be done! 

But with the patterns of play his side have adopted at times this season, that is likely to be an extremely hard ask. Everton simply do not play the ball forward fast enough to score early and often. Moyes instead appears to have drummed into the players the absolute requirement to focus instead on defence in the first half and hope to get in at half-time unscathed and still in the game. 

Part of the problem is his maddening reluctance to use the full complement of subs allowed in the modern game. He's been doing marginally better — albeit only after dreadful first-half performances (at Wolves and against Palace), but won't unleash his faster players to really attack at pace and hopefully score early goals that would then give his defenders something worthwhile to defend.

To be fair, the players who should be providing this much-needed energy and intensity going forward are maddeningly inconsistent. Charly Alcaraz was great against Palace when he came on, but he was awful against Wolves and Moyes was right to hook him at half-time. 

Tyler Dibling remains a huge enigma, almost completely unable to show his reputed silky skills given the moribund approach to forward play in the seriously limited opportunities he's been given so far. And he seems unlikely to start this game.

Iliman Ndiaye is of course undroppable. A huge crowd favourite, his dynamism, jinking runs, and uncanny ability to keep possession of the ball are all fantistic for Evertonians to watch; he is beyond criticsm... or is he?

I think he holds the ball too long, doesn't look to play it off quick enough, or shoot at goal often enough. There, I've said it. I'm sorry. And part of the problem is not enough support players close enough to him.  

Like Ndiaye, the rest of the team picks itself while Moyes persists with alternating his pair of monster centre-forwards firing blanks... or just not firing at all. Haven't we seen enough? Time for something different... Ndiaye, Keane, Alcaraz. Surely any one of them could do a far better job? 

To counter Haaland, assuming he's playing, maybe Moyes needs Keane in the back line alongside Tarkowski and O'Brien to challenge his physical presence, assuming Jarrad Branthwaite is not yet fit enough. 

Seamus Coleman returns from his international exploits again astounding the critics who wrote him off years ago. On the subs bench again, I expect, with Garner and Mykolenko defending the flanks and bombing forward.  

I never pick teams, and there is clearly a very good reason for that,  but here is what all this nonsense might equate to — a rather novel 3-3-3-1 formation:

Pickford
O'Brien, Tarkowski, Keane
Garner, Gueye, Mykolenko
Dibling, Alcaraz, Dewsbury-Hall
Ndiaye

In my dreams...

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