)From heroes at the end of last year to zeroes — quite literally when it came to a humiliating penalty shootout that added to a burgeoning catalogue of unwanted moments at Hill Dickinson Stadium — at the beginning of 2026, it’s taken just six painful days for Everton to seemingly press the detonator on their season.
The Premier League may yet open up a historic opportunity this term for another club outside of the media-darling set to gatecrash the European places and, like Crystal Palace last season, there’s always the possibility that someone other than the usual monied suspects could win the FA Cup. It looks highly unlikely that Everton will be ruffling any feathers in the top six or seven in 2025/26, though, and the FA Cup dream is already over before it really started.
The first week of the New Year, on the back of the uplifting win at Nottingham Forest and with three successive home games against beatable opponents had the potential to be a defining week in the Blues’ season. In the end, it ended up defining the club itself — one searching for direction and a new identity after years of struggle but hampered by haphazard recruitment, a desperately thin squad, and unsure of where it is going under a veteran manager who was largely outshone by younger counterparts in Brentford’s Keith Andrews and Sunderland’s Regis Le Bris either side of an awful performance against an abject Wolves in midweek.
David Moyes will rightly point to a list of absentees from his squad that was augmented by three in the latter half of the week when Michael Keane and Jack Grealish were sent off and Tim Iroegbunam picked up an injury as mitigation for the three winless games to start to the year that include this miserable display against the Black Cats.
However, while the shortage of available personnel has undoubtedly been a major factor, one exacerbated by the legacy of poor signings from the previous regime, Everton have looked bereft of an established playing style and an effective passing game even when they have been closer to full strength.
Today, in an alarming violation of tradition, they took the field in a change navy-blue fourth kit and were played off their own park by Sunderland in the first half. They fell behind on the half-hour mark to a superbly-taken goal and though they managed to raise their game somewhat in the second period, it was only the precocious endeavour of a teenager getting his first — and mystifyingly belated — minutes that saved them from defeat in normal time.
As it was, Adam Aznou’s efforts in winning an 89th-minute penalty were ultimately in vain thanks to James Garner failing in the shootout from the spot where he had been so clinical in normal time and Everton’s two much-maligned strikers, Thierno Barry and Beto, effectively passing the ball to the grateful Robin Roefs as the Toffees fell in the cup at the first hurdle.
The first quarter of an hour of this first FA Cup tie at Bramley-Moore Dock were unsettling. The hosts, with Nathan Patterson and Tyler Dibling recalled to the right flank, Dwight McNeil moved over to the left, Merlin Röhl operating in midfield alongside Harrison Armstrong and Beto given the nod up front, were dominated by a Sunderland outfit who enjoyed more than 75% of possession in that opening period.
Eliezer Mayenda proved himself to be a handful in the Blues’ penalty area and it was his back-heel for Simon Adingra that led to the first meaningful shot of the match, one that he fired into James Tarkowski before Moyes’s men finally started to settle and make inroads of their own.
A Dibling header off Roefs' clearance fell to Röhl but his control and shot from distance missed the target by a wide margin while Armstrong came within inches a few minutes later of opening his account in spectacular fashion. The youngster was quickest to a loose ball on the edge of the box following an Everton free-kick but his sliced half-volley arced agonisingly over the crossbar.
It was the Blues’ inability to deal with one of Nordi Mukiele’s long throws that was their downfall back down the other end, though, with none of their centre-halves able to make contact. And when Röhl could only help the ball on to Mayenda and he teed up Enzo Le Fée, the Frenchman was able to guide his volley back across goal and into the corner of Jordan Pickford’s goal.
Vitalii Mykolenko went close to equalising when he raked a shot across goal and a foot or so wide of the post but it was the Black Cats who nearly went into the interval 2-0 up when Pickford was forced to dive and save Mukiele’s overhead volley and then palm Romaine Mundle’s effort wide.
Evertonians demanded better in the second half and they did see an uptick in the team’s efforts even if there was precious little in the way of end product. Sunderland gave Everton a scare when Mayenda held off Jake O’Brien and fired across the face of Pickford’s goal in the 63rd minute and Dennis Cirkin hammered into the side-netting after good work by Le Fée but the bulk of the chances went the Toffees’ way.
Beto’s early header presented a routine save to Roefs while the Portuguese later appeared to be dragged down in the penalty area by Trai Hume but referee John Brooks waved play on. Mykolenko then found the target midway but also the keeper midway through the half, Tarkowski looped a header over and substitute Barry’s stooping effort of his own dropped just the wrong side of the upright as time began to ebb away.
Moyes’s charges appeared to have run out of ideas by the final 10 minutes, however, and he took took the decision to withdraw Röhl in favour of Aznou with just four left of the regulation 90. It didn’t take the energetic young Moroccan to make an impact as he tenaciously tried to barrel his way though in the box and tumbled to turf amidst a flurry of legs that did enough to convince Brooks he had been fouled.
Where the absence of VAR might, on a good day, have cost Everton with the Beto incident, this time they benefited from there being no forensic analysis and Garner stepped up to confidently despatch the equaliser.
That led to 30 unwelcome minutes of largely tedious fare by two tiring teams. Pickford had to beat away a fierce drive by Mundle five minutes into extra time, Armstrong collected a one-two with Beto but smashed over while excellent work by Barry freed Beto, only for the latter to crash a right-footer into the side-netting from the angle.
The Wearsiders had two last-gasp cracks at stealing the win in the waning minutes as Granit Xhaka’s shot ricocheted off Tarkowski and almost careened into his own goal and Mundle comfortably cleared the bar with a drive of his own before Brooks called time and signalled a penalty shootout. The less said of which the better…
Where Garner had been faultless from12 yards during normal time, he made life too easy for Roefs with the opening spot-kick and, having guessed the right way, the keeper made a fairly simple save. And as Sunderland efficiently scored all three of their penalties, Barry and Beto’s pathetic attempts were easily saved.
So any hopes of ending a 31-year wait for a trophy have already been extinguished at the Third Round stage. The FA Cup was a viable route to Europe for Everton but it has, instead, become the latest stumble for a team that is in danger of seeing any optimism that has been generated from a couple of exciting signings and flirtations with the top eight just ebb away into frustration and apathy.
Huge work still needs to be done in the transfer market to lift this team up a level; fresh blood and genuine talent is sorely needed while, on this evidence, a number of below-par players need to be moved on. It’s unlikely to come this month so Moyes will look to the returns of Iimnan Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in particular to provide a boost.
But there’s an awful lot needed to convince a brow-beaten and dismayed fanbase that this season will be anything other than treading water.