It’s time for Everton’s first away day of the 2026/27 season, as they gear up to face Bournemouth, at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Blues will be looking to build on back-to-back wins, perhaps making it three in the space of a week, at a ground where they have always struggled, historically.
Everton breezed past Preston in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night with a 4-0 win, courtesy of a Thierno Barry hat-trick and Brennan Johnson’s first goal in blue. It was a fun, stress-free night in which Everton showed their Premier League quality with a mostly unchanged starting eleven. The highlight, of course, was Barry’s hat-trick, which was his first for the Blues, and the first by any Everton player since Dominic Calvert-Lewin in September 2020, however many performances across the park caught the eye: Vitaliy Mykolenko was solid at left-back and showed a desire to get forward, Harrison Armstrong once again looked effortless in midfield and James Garner looked perfectly settled in during his first start post-surgery. Overall, it was the perfect night for all associated with Everton, and, ultimately, winning breeds winning.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s opponents, Bournemouth suffered a late 2-1 defeat at the Etihad last week in Marco Rose’s first game in charge. Despite the loss at the hands of a sub-par City side, the Cherries once again showed the threat they possess going forward and, after having managed to keep hold of most of their key players this summer, will be looking to build upon last season’s 7th place finish and their subsequent Europa League qualification.
Everton and Bournemouth – History
Everton won this fixture 1-0 last season, which was their first league win at the Vitality since Bournemouth were first promoted to the Premier League.
Of the 25 matches contested between these two clubs throughout history, both teams have won 11 each. However, only three of Everton’s wins have come this decade.
Bournemouth defeated Everton in the last match between the two sides, coming from behind to win 2-1 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in February.
Team News
James Garner made his first start since having surgery over the summer on Wednesday, racking up just over an hour of gametime.
Christian Norgaard is said to be ‘making progress’ but is still sidelined.
Hayden Hackney missed Wednesday’s cup tie due to rolling his ankle, and is ‘touch and go’ for the weekend.
Tim Iroegbunam remains sidelined with Hull City reportedly still interested.
It remains to be seen whether Iliman Ndiaye will play, amid speculation of a move to Manchester City.
Jake O’Brien is unlikely to feature after being an unused substitute midweek; he has been heavily linked with a move away.
Everton Key Player
Thierno Barry – Could this section have focused on anyone else after Wednesday night? The inform striker has continued his fine pre-season form into the new season, with four goals in two games and an assist to top it off. What was especially great to see was Barry’s positivity and movement. He seems to have taken the decision (or been explicitly told to?) improve his general hold up play by simplifying his layoffs and bringing others into play; his linkup play with Iliman Ndiaye was a key standout on Wednesday night. As for his movement, the fact that his hattrick consisted solely of ‘tapins’ says it all. People tend to look down on strikers scoring easy chances – I tend to look at them in the opposite way. You want your striker to be consistently getting easy chances due to their movement, rather than relying on scraps like we have seen Everton strikers do in the past.
Barry has spoken openly about how he is aware he was not good enough last season, and has also said about how this season is ‘his season’. That being said, he was far from poor last season as a whole. Eight Premier League goals in your first season in the league as a young striker coming from abroad is nothing to sniffed at – some established strikers who have grown up in this country have failed to hit those numbers! Barry has said how he wants to hit a 20-goal season, and who are we to doubt him, now? He is already 20% of the way there, and I am so excited to see his progress this year.
One to Watch for Bournemouth
Rayan – Bournemouth have such a fun attack, with Tavernier, Evanilson, Kluivert, Kroupi proving to be one of the most exciting set of attackers in the whole league. The one who has always stood out to me, though, is the now fully-fledged Brazil international Rayan. Having only just recently turned 20, the right-winger has six appearances for his nation in an extremely competitive squad and is entering his fourth full season as a professional. He joined Bournemouth in January for a fee of around £30million – incredible business in today’s market and the type of transfer which we are all dying to see Everton make more of.
The last time these two sides met, Rayan ran the show, scoring his second goal for his new club in only his third appearance. He was definitely a nightmare for Mykolenko to defend against, however his performance against City last weekend was far from what we have come to expect from him. The three other members of the front four definitely outperformed him, but one consistent pattern of play caught my eye; Whenever someone was on the ball for Bournemouth down the right hand side, there always seemed to be someone free waiting at the back post, and this was how they scored their goal. With Everton persisting with makeshift right-back Merlin Rohl, Rayan could be the key to catching him out of position, and don’t be surprised if he comes away with an assist or two.
Final Thoughts
This is Everton’s last match before they know their full squad for the rest of the calendar year, as the window slams shut on Tuesday. A busy week is still expected in terms of both incomings and outgoings, with the key areas such as right-back still needing to be addressed. Despite the two wins and two clean sheets in the space of a week, the right-back position was exploited many times against Palace – if they had a better finisher in front of goal, they could have got a few as a result of this weakness. Everton don’t seem in much of a rush to fix this issue though, and it could be a disaster waiting to happen as they face a much superior attack this weekend.
Bournemouth will once again be sniffing around the European places this year, and will be eager to put things right after what they will believe to be a harsh defeat at the Etihad last time out. They have an admirable structure as a club and it’s difficult not to admire them. Saturday will comfortably be much more of a test than last week.
In terms of a prediction, I will go with a 1-1 draw. I don’t think Everton have enough at the back to keep the Cherries out, and maybe they used up all of their defensive luck against Palace, but Barry’s hot streak in front of goal is hard to look past. This is one of those games where anything could happen and I wouldn’t be too surprised at all.
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