Energized Everton Beat Wandering Wolves
The Toffees are a team on an upward trajectory. It'll take some getting used to for Everton supporters.
THERE IS A NEW FEELING FOR EVERTON fans this year.
It’s called joy. And it feels pretty strange for us.
For the past four to five years, Everton supporters have started each season with a mixture of dread, hopelessness, and a hint of terror as to what awaited the club as it began a new campaign.
It wasn’t the hope that killed us. Former Everton owner Farhad Moshiri had well and truly killed the hope1. All the supporters could hope for was that we’d somehow, by hook or crook, avoid relegation for the first time since 1950-1951.
It was not a fun existence for anyone, but especially for the supporters. I’m sure it feels terrible to actually be on a team that’s relegated for the first time in 75 years. However, players and coaches are allowed to move on. There’s always another club looking for players or managers, even if they’re coming from a just-relegated team.
But there’s no moving on for supporters who are wedded to the club for life. If Everton went down, well, we went down with them. And so we lived on the margins of football fandom. It was a dark time.
But under David Moyes, sunny days are here again.
FOR THE FIRST TIME in a long time, Everton looks like a team with swagger. Not manufactured swagger, not PR-department swagger—the real thing.
A 3-2 win over Wolverhampton on Saturday pushed them up to fifth2 in the table, while Wolves stayed winless, still thrashing about like a fish on a pier.
It started with simplicity. Seven minutes in, Vitalii Mykolenko swung a ball into the box, Jack Grealish nodded it back across goal, and Beto did the rest. One-nil. This is what it looks like when a team has a plan and players actually follow it.
Wolves got their one moment of joy midway through the first half. A free kick came drifting in, Everton’s defense went wandering, and Hwang Hee-Chan slipped through to score. First goal of Wolves’ season, and it had all the energy of a hammered human at The Winslow looking to slam one last pint before heading across the street to Goodison.
The Everton response was immediate. Grealish was in the middle of it, again, with a clever flick to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who returned it for Iliman Ndiaye to finish. Two-one. It wasn’t just a goal, it was a statement:
Everton are not scared of these situations anymore.
The second half was more of the same. Grealish pulled the strings again, feeding Dewsbury-Hall, who lashed one high into the net. At three-one, the game was seemingly finished. Grealish continued pulling Everton into an identity they’ve lacked for years.
But Everton never makes it easy, do they? ]
With 11 minutes left, Mykolenko made a mess of a routine clearance, and Rodrigo Gomes punished him. Suddenly, Wolves believed, or at least gave the appearance they did.
They surged, they pressed, they launched everything they had. Jordan Pickford denied Bellegarde, Gomes nearly nicked a point, and the final whistle felt like a release valve.
⚽️ Everton 3. Wolves 2.
✅ Takeaways
Grealish, Reborn
THE BIG HEADLINE IS OBVIOUS: Jack Grealish is back.
Two assists here bring the total to four in two matches to start the season, good enough for a Premier League lead that doubles the next few players on the list.
For context, Grealish has doubled his assist total from his two final seasons combined at Man City. He’s on pace to shatter his season assists record3; at his current pace, he’s on track to rack up 84 assists this season4.
He looks freer, sharper, and Moyes is giving him license to be himself, which is something Pep Guardiola took away from him over the last two years at City. Pep is a tactical innovator and a genius, but there’s no explanation for why he paid $100 million for a player and then took away the biggest weapon in his arsenal.
When Grealish came off late in the match, the away supporters sang his name. Loudly. Proudly.
It won’t be the last time. This isn’t just a redemption arc—it’s potentially career rehab in real time. Grealish’s touch, his awareness, the simple fact that he wants the ball again—it all screams of a player who has something to prove. If Jack keeps performing at this rate, he’ll easily break his single-season assists record. Hell, he’s almost halfway there.
Is it too soon to activate the option to make Jack’s move permanent? Let’s get that done and not wait until the end of the season.
Wolves: Hollow Fight
FOR WOLVERHAMPTON, THE MATH IS UGLY. Three league games, zero points. They’re already staring at a relegation scrap unless something drastic changes. Their attack still feels like wishful thinking, their defense collapses under any pressure, and manager Vítor Pereira already looks like a man aging in dog years.
The late surge was admirable, but it doesn’t keep you in the Premier League. Wolves need more than scraps of defiance. They need an actual plan. Having been in their shoes for years, I know what their supporters are feeling. All I can say to them is, don’t give up. Stay with your team. Support them. Sing for them. Chant their names.
They’re going to need you.
The Bigger Picture
EVERTON ARE BUILDING REAL MOMENTUM. Moyes has his squad bought in, and Grealish is the spark that lights the whole thing. A year ago, this club was on the way to what seemed like another relegation fight under Sean Dyche. By January, Dyche gave up on his players and left in a shocking act of cowardice.
Today? Everton looks dangerous. Probably not title contenders—let’s not get drunk on the moment—but it feels like we have an outside chance of pushing for a Europa League spot. Perhaps we’ll have a decent cup run? Truthfully, after what we’ve been through for the past few years, a nice, comfortable mid-table finish with zero stress or drama would feel mighty nice and appreciated this year.
That doesn’t mean I want the team to aim for mid-table, though. They need to take the pitch every week, fighting to win the league.
Wolves, meanwhile, are precisely what Everton used to be: anxious, brittle, hoping someone else will bail them out. Their season already feels like a long march.
The Final Word
Everton didn’t just win—they showed a version of themselves supporters can actually believe in. A version built on fight, identity, and an ex-City winger suddenly looking like himself again. For Wolves, it’s another empty night and another chorus of frustrated jeers.
Sometimes football is cruel. Sometimes it’s kind. Today? It was both. Everton smiled. Wolves sulked.
And the table—even in these early days—tells the story.
Moshiri was welcomed as a savior when he bought the club; Everton finally had a billionaire owner who would invest in recruiting the best players in the world. That didn’t happen. Instead, we got a decade of haphazard recruiting and wanton spending
I realize it’s early in the season and it’s best to pay no mind to the table right now, because it’ll drastically change as the season goes on. But seeing Everton in 5th feels like a dream anyway.
Grealish had 10 assists with Aston Villa in 2020-2021.
Obviously this is silly and Grealish will not get 84 assists in a single season. But man, that would be something, huh?