All those glass half empty Evertonians should take a moment to pause and reflect on the fact that the club’s most valuable player Jarrad Branthwaite has not even kicked a ball for the first team all season.

The potentially generational talent, who could still yet emerge as the most dominant ball-playing defender in the game, demonstrated his commitment to the Blues’ new dawn by penning a five-year deal, but has been left hamstrung throughout 2025/26 to date and is not expected back until the new calendar year .

In his absence, Everton stalwart Michael Keane, now in his ninth season at the club, has gone from being a supposed bit-part player and fourth choice in the role having signed his own one-year extension, to the most consistent member of the side, who, up until this fixture, had

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