Past master
Almost a decade on from his departure, David Moyes remains by far the most-successful manager of Everton in the Premier League so there was an added poignancy to his presence here as the Blues sunk to a new low. Indeed, it was only when Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins netted the only goal of the game over 100 miles away in Southampton that this result did not condemn Everton to the bottom of the table.
When Rafael Benitez was sacked as Everton manager 53 weeks ago, it was not because of his previous employment across Stanley Park but rather a run of results that chairman Bill Kenwright would later describe as being “unacceptably disappointing.” The former Liverpool boss had won just one of his last 13 Premier League games, a sequence that included nine defeats.
