Match Preview: Brentford v Everton

Match Preview: Brentford v Everton

Brentford return to Premier League action on Saturday afternoon when Everton visit Gtech Community Stadium (3pm kick-off BST).

The Bees and David Moyes' side go into the game with an almost identical record, with just goal difference separating them going into the final seven games of the season.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the match.

Pre-match analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Aerial battle key in Toffees clash

Brentford return to action after the international break with a six-pointer against one of the Premier League’s best away sides.

David Moyes’ Everton are level on points with the seventh-placed Bees - albeit with an inferior goal difference - and have designs of their own on a European spot.

The Toffees traded Goodison Park for the impressive Hill Dickinson Stadium at the start of the campaign, but more than half of their points have been won on the road - their away form underpinned by a rock-solid defence.

With 11 shutouts to their name in 2025/26, only Arsenal (15) have kept more clean sheets than Everton, who have conceded just 16 goals on their travels all season.

The Merseysiders have the lowest average possession share in the top flight away from home (39%) - a statistic that underlines how organised and resilient Moyes’ side are without the ball.

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews will no doubt have used the lull in Premier League action to analyse the Toffees’ potential vulnerabilities - particularly how the Bees can exploit them - and quick attacking transitions may offer their clearest route through.

No team in the division has conceded more goals via fast breaks than Everton (6) this season, while Brentford have scored a league-high nine goals from counter attacks.

Seven of the Bees’ goals on the break have been scored on home soil at Gtech Community Stadium… but their two strikes from counters outside TW8 came in January’s fantastic 4-2 win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Both were scored by Igor Thiago, whose meteoric rise this season went stratospheric during the international break.

Thiago has plundered 19 Premier League goals this season, three of them in the reverse fixture, and it took him just 41 minutes to open his account for Brazil.

After a short cameo in a 2-1 defeat to France, Thiago came off the bench to coolly slot home a penalty in a 3-1 win over Croatia.

Having boosted his claims for a spot in Carlo Ancelotti’s 2026 World Cup squad, Thiago’s focus will return to club football - and what could prove a decisive aerial battle.

Everton (22.1 aerials won per 90) and Brentford (20.2) are the two most aerially dominant sides in the Premier League this season, and both excel in the air at either end of the pitch.

Everton centre-back James Tarkowski and his Brentford counterpart Sepp van den Berg rank second and third respectively in the Premier League for aerials won this term, while Thierno Barry (4th) and Thiago (9th) also feature in the division’s top 10.

With seven games remaining, the race for a European spot is finely poised - and how both sides handle that aerial battle could go a long way to shaping the outcome on Saturday.

Scout report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Moyes has transformed Everton's fortunes

At times last season, there were fears Everton could move into their sparkling new home - the Hill Dickinson Stadium - as a Championship club. For the fourth season in succession, they were looking over their shoulders, the threat of relegation haunting them at every turn.

But since David Moyes’ return to Merseyside, there have been absolutely no such worries. It is as though they have disappeared into thin air.

The Scot lost just three of the 19 Premier League games he oversaw after replacing Sean Dyche in January 2025, putting the Toffees 23 points clear of the drop zone. He was backed for this season accordingly, while Jack Grealish also joined on loan from Man City and racked up four assists across his first three appearances.

After a steady start, Everton climbed as high as seventh after a 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest on 6 December. They went onto win only two of the next nine, yet stayed right in the top-half mix after four draws in that run, two of them secured after they had fallen behind.

On 7 February, they again came from behind - this time they beat Fulham 2-1. Speaking afterwards, Moyes said: “I don’t want to come in here and say we’re trying to avoid relegation. I don’t want to do that because Everton have had too much bad news and bad publicity, so I’d rather come in here and say we’re having a go at Europe. You might laugh at me in a few weeks’ time and say how stupid I was, but I’d rather be positive.”

More than two months on, no one is laughing at Moyes. Everton have won three and lost three and now sit eighth in the Premier League. It took Arsenal 89 minutes to score their first in a 2-0 win on 4 March. Fierce rivals Liverpool are now only three points ahead in fifth with seven games to play.

Opta Analyst predicts that is where the Toffees will finish - 0.45 points behind Brentford - but whether or not an eighth-place finish will be enough to qualify for Europe is yet to be decided. Going into the international break, Sky Bet priced them at 11/2 to finish in the top six, 18/1 to finish in the top five and 50/1 to finish in the top four.

What is certain is that Everton need only three points to better last season’s haul of 48 points, which would also represent the highest amount they have picked up since 2020/21 (59). You have to go back to 2018/19 for the last time they finished as high as eighth and 2017/18 for the last time they reached Europe.

Overall, the view has changed for Everton; they are not looking over their shoulders anymore. Judging by their trajectory since last January, the ambitions may grow even loftier next term.

In the Dugout

David Moyes

Like the majority of his managerial colleagues in the Premier League, David Moyes had a long and successful playing career before turning his hand to coaching.

He started at Celtic as a professional in 1980 - where he won the Scottish Premiership in 1981/82 - and went on to play for Cambridge United, Bristol City, Shrewsbury, Dunfermline Athletic, Hamilton and Preston. He was part of the North End squad that won the Third Division in 1995/96 and he retired at the age of 35, having played his last game in February 1998.

By this point, he had been appointed Preston manager, a role for which he was well-equipped, having started taking his coaches badges in his early 20s. Just over four years later, in March 2002, he was approached by Everton and soon swapped Division Two for the Premiership.

During his nine-year spell on Merseyside, Moyes brought a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney into the first team and into the eyes of the world and, from 2006/07 and 2012/13, steered the Toffees to seven straight top-eight finishes, as well as reaching the 2008/09 FA Cup final, which they lost 2-1 to Chelsea.

In the summer of 2013, he was given the unenviable task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, but lasted less than 12 months of the six-year deal he signed and was dismissed in April 2014.

A year in La Liga with Real Sociedad followed, where he won only 12 of his 42 games in charge, before he returned to England with Sunderland. It was just eight victories from 43 matches there, with his spell ending in the Black Cats’ relegation after a decade in the top flight.

Moyes was handed a six-month deal to take over at West Ham in November 2017 and tasked with securing survival after the sacking of Slaven Bilić, which he did. However, his contract was not extended in the summer and he departed London Stadium after 31 games and a 29 per cent win ratio.

The Scot returned to east London in December 2019 and was in charge of the Hammers until the end of the 2023/24 season, when his contract was not renewed. He oversaw the historic Europa Conference League win in 2022/23 and left with the highest win percentage of the club's permanent managers, with 44.59 across 231 games in his second spell.

Moyes came back to management after a short spell away from the game, returning to Everton on a two-and-a-half-year contract on 11 January 2025. The 62-year-old has managed 746 Premier League games, which puts him behind only Ferguson (810) and Arsène Wenger (828).

The Gameplan

With Christopher Beesley, Liverpool Echo

Christopher Beesley, Everton reporter for the Liverpool Echo, discusses how David Moyes' side are likely to line up on Saturday.

"I do not think I am giving away any state secrets in saying that Moyes’ Everton rarely deviate from a 4-2-3-1 formation," Beesley told brentfordfc.com earlier this week.

"It is unfair to suggest they are just physical though, as there are now some flair players in the side, especially Iliman Ndiaye."

Last Premier League starting XI v Everton (4-2-3-1): Pickford; O'Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye; Beto

Match Officials

First Bees game for Hallam

Referee: Farai Hallam

Assistants: Simon Bennett and Steven Meredith

Fourth official: Andrew Madley

VAR: Michael Salisbury

Farai Hallam will take charge of just his third Premier League match when he oversees Saturday's game against Everton.

A former defender in Stevenage's academy, his first English top-flight game was Manchester City’s 2-0 win against Wolves in January, while he also had the whistle for Burnley’s 3-2 victory against Crystal Palace in February.

Hallam - who has not refereed a Brentford fixture before - has been the man in the middle of 26 games across all competitions this season but, despite brandishing 87 yellow cards, is yet to send a player off.

Last meeting

Everton 2 Brentford 4, (Premier League, 4 January 2026)

Igor Thiago's first Premier League hat-trick helped Brentford secure a memorable 4-2 victory over Everton on their first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium.

The Brazilian cleared a James Tarkowski effort off the line early on before finishing off a pinpoint Vitaly Janelt cross to open the scoring.

Nathan Collins headed in to double the lead early in the second half before Thiago’s well-taken second and third goals sandwiched a Beto effort at the other end.

Thierno Barry pulled another goal back in stoppage-time but it was just a blemish on a positive day on Merseyside for the west Londoners.