The Toffees finished the 2003-04 campaign in 17th position, just 6 points clear of the relegation zone, and star player Wayne Rooney was sold to Manchester United in the summer.

With all that in mind, every Evertonian could have been forgiven for expecting another relegation battle during the 2004-05 season, but things turned out to be vastly different.

Little did we know it, but Everton were on the verge of their best-ever finish in the Premier League.  Marcus Bent was brought into the club to replace Wayne Rooney, much to the dismay of the Goodison Park faithful, but this turned out to be a shrewd signing by David Moyes.

Tim Cahill was offered the chance to prove his ability at the top level of English football as he signed for the Toffees from Championship side Millwall.

The First Half of the Season

Everton got off to a miserable start, losing 4-1 at home to Arsenal on the opening weekend. However, an unbeaten run of six games followed as the Toffees beat Crystal Palace (3-1), West Brom (2-1), Manchester City (1-0), Middlesbrough (1-0) and Portsmouth (1-0), as well as holding Manchester United to a goalless draw at Old Trafford.

Moyes’s men went on to win three games in October, including a 2-0 victory over his former side Preston in the League Cup 3rd Round. The highlight in October was the five-goal thriller at Carrow Road, which Everton won 3-2 thanks to goals from Kilbane, Bent, and Ferguson.

The Toffees were knocked out of the League Cup in the next round by Arsenal but then went on to win five of their next seven in the Premier League, including that famous 1-0 win at Goodison Park in the first Merseyside Derby of the season.

On Boxing Day, Everton secured a 2-1 home win against Manchester City but lost their next two festive fixtures against Charlton and Tottenham. January saw Thomas Gravesen leave the club to join Real Madrid but Moyes invested in a new creative midfielder, Mikel Arteta, and added to his strike force by bringing in James Beattie from Southampton.

The Second Half of the Season

Moyes had worked a miracle to keep Everton at the top end of the table with the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, but losing Gravesen from the heart of the midfield proved costly.

Everton picked up three wins in January, though only one arrived in the league against Portsmouth at Goodison Park. The other two wins saw Everton knock Plymouth, followed by Sunderland, out of the FA Cup, but the 5th Round would see the Toffees beaten 2-0 by Manchester United.

A frustrating end to the season saw Everton pick up just four wins from their final 11 league games. The second Merseyside derby ended in a 2-1 defeat but Everton still managed to claim 4th spot ahead of their local rivals.

The Toffees lost three of their last four matches but did win their final home game of the campaign against Newcastle 2-0, thanks to goals from David Weir and Tim Cahill. Mikel Arteta scored his first goal for the club from a direct free-kick in a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace, a game in which James Vaughan became the league’s youngest goalscorer.

Duncan Ferguson headed home the only goal in a 1-0 win at Goodison Park over Manchester United, 10 years after he had done the very same thing to Alex Ferguson’s side.

The Final Outcome

Tim Cahill top-scored for the Toffees with 11 goals in his debut season as the club secured fourth spot and a place in the Champions League qualifiers, three points clear of Liverpool and Bolton. Moyes’s men scored 45 goals and conceded 46, claiming nine 1-0 victories on their way to their best-ever finish of the Premier League era.

Reader Comments (8)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Jim Bennings
1 Posted 04/10/2025 at 19:34:09
Could have at least put the 2004 derby match pile-on with Tim Cahill on the top guys, lol.

This picture is 2012-13 season no?

Anyway 04-05 was a great season, we were so close yet so far in that summer of 2005 and the Villarreal killer blow ended our Champions League hopes.

Without doubt the Carsley derby was the highlight, defensively that season we were watertight but again, we lacked goals and dynamism going forward, something which snowballed into the 05-06 season due to not signing a quality striker.

John Raftery
2 Posted 04/10/2025 at 19:52:11
Thanks, James. I don't think there were many of us at the beginning of that season who expected anything other than a fight against relegation.

The –1 goal difference tells a story of how tight the margins were between success and failure. The signing of Tim Cahill coupled with a tremendous team spirit made a huge difference especially in the first half of the season.

After the turn of the year, the departure of Gravesen left a hole in midfield. Although Arteta arrived on loan, he took a while to adjust to the intensity of the Premier League.

The signing of James Beattie failed to make the difference we might have expected up front. Indeed it could be argued his arrival had a negative impact on Marcus Bent who had exceeded expectations until Christmas but contributed little in the final months of the season.

Two of the three defeats in the last four games came after Champions League qualification had been secured. The biggest blow came in the final game, a 3-2 defeat at Bolton, when Lee Carsley suffered an injury which ruled him out for most of the following season.

Tamhas Woods
3 Posted 06/10/2025 at 00:42:45
Ah, the fine memories of this season are plentiful. My top 3 favourites other than the wins over Liverpool, Man Utd and Newcastle Utd.

1. Norwich City (A) and being at a family friend's wedding, desperately using my gran's Fred Flinstone phone to try and get BBC teletext updates (I'm old!). Somehow it worked, and 'NOR 2-3 EVE FT' flashed up the second the minister asked if there was any reason the couple shouldn't be married, and it took every ounce of self control not to scream "YESSS!"

2. Aston Villa (A). I don't think we ever had such a dominant away game under Moyes... in the middle of our worst form that season, we just absolutely controlled it from start to finish. Should have had at least six. The third goal was telepathy manifest; if that had been a Ronaldo - Rooney or Robben - Drogba combo, I'm pretty sure they'd still be talking about it on MotD 20 years on.

3. Mikky's free kick against Palace (H) - the moment we saw the real him. I had my doubts about him, as many of us thought he was supposed to be Gravesen's replacement. A prime example of 'short term pain, long term gain' when it comes to changing personnel. Easily our best all-round player of the 2000s, and it's not even close IMO.

Eric Myles
4 Posted 07/10/2025 at 09:53:08
My abiding memory of that season was the redshite having a hissy fit over not qualifying for Europe.

So much so that the Minister of Sport at the time said that Everton didn't deserve to be in Europe 'cos we finished nearer the bottom than the top??

But we still finished nearer the top than the redshite who he said should get our place. Tosser of the highest order!

Stephen Vincent
5 Posted 09/10/2025 at 13:37:03
John,

My memory of that season is a 7-0 thrashing at Arsenal on the final weekend before the 3-2 beating at Bolton. Without those results, we would have had a semi-respectable goal difference.

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts
6 Posted 09/10/2025 at 13:45:01
Stephen, checking back I discovered we also got beat 7-0 by Wolves in the 1938-39 season. A season where they came 2nd and we came 1st. Champions — but beaten 7-0 by the runners up!

Asked the question and no, not the worst defeat for the Champions. Newcastle lost IX-I to Sunderland.

[It was that long ago the BBC had not been created and numbers were written in Roman Numerals.]

Tony Abrahams
7 Posted 09/10/2025 at 13:51:20
I'm glad you mentioned that Villa game, Tamhas, because I remember discussing the game on the train, going to Villa Park. The general consensus was that none of us could see where the next win was coming from.

Beating Liverpool is always nice, but I think the most special game at Goodison that season (maybe other than beating Newcastle 2-0 to help us clinch 4th, which was cemented the next day at Highbury) was under the floodlights when Duncan Ferguson rolled back the years, and so did our famous old stadium. I thought it was the loudest I'd heard the crowd (since they had done away with the terraces) that night.

I don't know many Evertonians who wouldn't have taken a 17th-placed finish after we'd had to sell Rooney (so Bill the Bastard could stay in charge). We got absolutely battered at home to Arsenal, on the opening day of the season but I much preferred the season when we last won a trophy -- even though we only sealed our Premier League status a few days before we beat Manchester United at Wembley.

Phil Roberts
8 Posted 09/10/2025 at 18:18:13
Tony, it was the days of faxes. I found the number for Goodison Park and had it written so, as soon as the final whistle sounded at Portman Road, I sent the fax to thank Joe Royle and to congratulate him on a wonderful job.

The final was 11 days later. In that period, he dictated a letter and signed it to thank me for my fax and included the words "and we want to be talking Cups and European Cups next year". How true.

Never did like Koeman, especially after the "tackle" on Craig Short.

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


How to get rid of these ads and support TW

© ToffeeWeb