CloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
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On April 12, 2014, at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, Everton took a 1-0 road win thanks to a late Wes Brown own goal. The win was the Toffees' seventh in a row and after what had been an awfully sketchy January-February stretch, moved them back to fourth place in the Premier League, two points up on fifth-place Arsenal and only four back of third-place Manchester City.
We remember another 2013-14 collapse more vividly: that of derby rivals Liverpool, who led the league on April 12 but slid (both metaphorically and, in Steven Gerrard's case, literally) just enough for City to charge by and take the title. But when Everton dropped three of four late-April matches -- 3-2 at home to Crystal Palace, 2-0 at Southampton, 3-2 to that Man City side -- it ruined the club's best shot at Champions League play since falling to Villarreal in qualifying back in 2006. They were right there, but settled for fifth place and a decent (but unspectacular) Europa League stint.
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Really, 2014 wasn't that long ago -- it was the year "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and Pharrell William's song "Happy" came out, after all -- but with Liverpool's rise, Manchester City's further solidification under Pep Guardiola, and the further financial might imposed by England's richest clubs, it feels like a couple of decades ago for Everton. The Toffees have finished 11th, 11th, seventh, eighth, eighth and 12th in the league since 2014. They've hired veteran managers who had seen success elsewhere (Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce), taken a chance on younger, less proven coaches (Marco Silva), and landed around the same spot in the table either way.
Another veteran, Carlo Ancelotti, replaced Silva last winter, and immediate impressions weren't amazing. Everton's form did improve, from a ghastly 0.93 points per match under Silva to 1.48 under Ancelotti, but while the defense improved, the attack -- which seemed like it should be quite solid with fun, young players like Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison -- remained less than the sum of its parts. Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison each scored 13 league goals, but no one else logged more than three.
Then the reinforcements arrived, as Everton enjoyed an active and thus far effective transfer window.
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James Rodriguez came over from Real Madrid and set up shop on the right wing; central midfielders Abdoulaye Doucoure (Watford) and Allan (Napoli) came aboard as well. Each of this trio has played a majority of minutes in the first three league matches of the season. The club also added 19-year old left back Niels Nkounkou from Marseille, and while he hasn't appeared in a league match yet, he's been good in three EFL Cup appearances.
Three matches into the 2020-21 Premier League season, Everton have yet to drop a point, having beaten Tottenham Hotspur, West Brom and Crystal Palace by a combined 8-3. Calvert-Lewin is already almost halfway to last year's goals total with five -- he added three more in a League Cup win over West Ham United on Wednesday, too -- and the quartet of Rodriguez and captain Seamus Coleman on the right flank, and Richarlison and Lucas Digne on the left, have created 22 chances and five assists between them.
Everton are also controlling the ball -- 59.1% possession (fourth in the league) with 2.3 passes per possession more than their opponent (third) -- and generating lots of high-quality opportunities: they're averaging 0.16 shots per possession (seventh) at 0.18 xG per shot (third). This is a legitimately fun team to watch, and they have already capitalized on the hot start with a fun, cheesy music video.