Dyche must unleash “colossal” Everton ace who’d walk into Man City’s team

Everton have been on a fairly strong run in the Premier League recently, and are beginning to pick up crucial points in their fight against relegation. The Toffees have lost one in their last six games, a humbling 4-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

However, outside of that, they have been defensively diligent. In the last six games, they have only conceded those four goals against Ruben Amorim’s side, keeping clean sheets in the five other outings.

Despite being so low in the table, they have been defensively sound and are keeping teams out, including Chelsea and Arsenal in their last two games.

With Manchester City up next, they will be hoping to keep this good defensive form up.

Everton’s defensive record in 2024/25

It is not common for teams threatened by relegation to have good defensive records. This season is a prime example of that. The bottom three clubs are leaking goals so far, with Wolves conceding 40, Ipswich Town 32 and Southampton 36. 17th place Leicester City have let in 37 goals.

So, in that sense, the Toffees are massive anomalies. As per Sofascore, they have shipped the third-fewest number of goals in 2024/25 so far, letting in just 21 in 17 games. That works out at just 1.2 goals conceded per game on average.

It is helped by the fact Jordan Pickford is, yet again, having a season to remember. He has been an ever-present for Sean Dyche’s men, keeping seven clean sheets, including those two against London giants Chelsea and Arsenal. As Liverpool Echo journalist Joe Thomas said, he is in “brilliant form”.

What perhaps makes the Toffees’ defensive record even more impressive is that they are not even conceding many chances. As per FBref, they have an expected goals against tally of just 21.3 xGA. That ranks them joint-sixth in the top flight.

Credit must go to Dyche, Pickford and the defenders in front of him, who have all contributed to their superb record. Jarrad Branthwaite has impressed once again and is certainly a player Man City could do with.

Branthwaite’s stellar season

Whilst Everton have been flying high of late, the same cannot be said for Pep Guardiola’s City side. They have won just one of their last 12 games, conceding 27 goals in that time, an unfathomably poor run.

Earlier in the season, after a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord in the Champions League in a game in which they were 3-0, there was particularly scathing criticism with Alan Shearer telling Amazon Prime viewers “they look weak, they look light, they look frail” in defence. Clearly, that has not improved much since then.

Branthwaite, however, has been classy this season. The 22-year-old struggled with injury at the start of the season but has since got himself back to full fitness. He has played 90 minutes in Everton’s last six top-flight games, which coincides with this strong run of form.

He was nearly flawless against both Arsenal and Chelsea in their two 0-0 draws, both excellent results for Everton.

The Liverpool Echo’s post-match player ratings saw him receive a 7/10 for both showings. Against the Gunners, the defender was praised for performing well in “a determined defensive display”, and against the Blues, a “superb” tackle on Cole Palmer was noted.

Branthwaite’s form is seemingly back to the high standard we saw in the 2023/24 season when football statistician Statman Dave described him as a “colossal” defender. He is a huge reason as to why Everton are performing so well defensively of late, and it is no coincidence that this run has come at the same time as his good availability.

Dyche must start him against the Citizens. The form Branthwaite has shown against some of the Premier League’s most threatening attacking sides recently has been too good to ignore, and he will be imperative to keeping City out.

His current form is so good that he would probably get into Guardiola’s side, and could actually help them a lot and stop this run of poor form. Luckily for Everton, he will be playing in royal blue rather than sky blue, and will be hoping to contribute to another huge result as they look to climb the table.