Everton’s mini-unbeaten run continues, albeit not quite in the way they would’ve hoped.
On Saturday, David Moyes’ men were held to a goalless draw by Aston Villa at Hill Dickinson Stadium, neither team ever looking particularly likely to make the breakthrough.
Nevertheless, this means the Toffees are still yet to lose or even concede a goal at their new home at Bramley-Moore Dock, beating both Brighton in the Premier League and Mansfield in the EFL Cup on Merseyside so far.
The 3-2 victory over Wolves at Molineux a fortnight ago underlined the array of exciting attacking midfielders and wingers at Moyes’ disposal, but this team could’ve been even more frightening, had they not sold a “phenomenal” centre-forward.
Jack Grealish's impact at Everton
Jack Grealish did not take long to rediscover his best form after joining Everton on loan from Manchester City.
Having bagged a pair of assists during the victories over Brighton and Wolves, the England international leads the way in the division in that regard, albeit at this early stage.
Nevertheless, as recognition, he was named Premier League player of the month for the very first time in August, with Patrick Boyland of the Athletic describing his impact as ‘instantaneous’, labelling him a ‘symbol of hope’ for ‘success-starved supporters’.
However, he would be even more scintillating if he was able to feed top-quality strikers.
Beto scored against both Mansfield and Wolves last month, but Thierno Barry is yet to get off the mark since arriving from Villarreal for £27m, having bagged 11 La Liga goals during his solitary season with the Yellow Submarine.
Thus, the Frenchman could certainly come good, while Beto has proven what he can do, scoring seven Premier League goals after Moyes’ re-appointment in January, but just how much would Grealish have enjoyed playing with a forgotten Everton forward?
Everton's forgotten centre-forward
Back in the summer of 2019, Everton signed a striker by the name of Moise Kean for around £25m from Juventus but, suffice to say, he did not leave much of a lasting impression at Goodison.
The striker scored just four goals in 39 appearances for the Toffees, on target in the Premier League against Newcastle and Bournemouth, while also netting during EFL Cup victories over Salford and Fleetwood.
Thus, he spent the 2020/21 campaign on loan at Paris Saint-Germain, actually scoring 17 times for les Rouge-et-Bleu, before returning to Everton the following August, fittingly marking his final game for the club by being sent off against Huddersfield.
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Soon after, he rejoined Juventus on a two-year loan deal, with la Vecchia Signora paying around £28m to eventually make the move permanent.
Nevertheless, across two spells in Turin, Kean scored a mere 22 goals in 123 appearances for the Bianconeri, only really bursting to life after moving to Fiorentina for around £15.5m last summer.
During his debut campaign at Stadio Artemio Franchi, Kean scored 25 times across all competitions, 19 of which came in Serie A, making him the division’s second-highest scorer, behind only Capocannoniere winner Mateo Retegui.
As a result, Inter legend Christian Vieri labelled his form “phenomenal”, reflected by the fact that Football Transfers believe his current market value to be around £48m, by some distance the highest it has ever been, more than three times more than what Fiorentina paid to recruit him and more than the £28m the same source values Grealish at.
The table below underlines Kean’s exponential increase in terms of scoring output.
2016/17
Juventus
1
2017/18
Juventus
4
2018/19
Juventus
7
2019/20
Everton
2
2020/21
Everton & PSG
19
2021/22
Juventus
6
2022/23
Juventus
8
2023/24
Juventus
Zero
2024/25
Fiorentina
25
As the table documents, it is quite the turnaround for Kean, having scored no goals in one season before bagging 25 in the next, having only ever managed more than eight in a campaign once beforehand.
His form has caught the eye of both recent Italy managers, first Luciano Spalletti and subsequently the newly-appointed Gennaro Gattuso.
Before the start of this year, Kean had scored just one international goal since September 2021.
Now though, he has bagged five in 2025 already, notching a brace against Germany in the Nations League quarter-finals at Westfalenstadion in March, before netting three times during the most-recent break, scoring a towering header when Estonia visited Bergamo, before a brace during Monday’s bonkers 5-4 victory over Israel at Nagyerdei Stadion.
So, while no one at Everton could’ve forecast how good Kean would become, he is proof that development and progress are not linear, but just imagine the Blues had a striker capable of scoring 25 goals a season, and how good he would be in tandem with Grealish.