Ryan Benson of Opta Analyst assesses Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s impact at Everton following his move to Merseyside from Saturday's opponents, Chelsea.
Some transfers just make sense.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's summer switch to Everton always looked likelier to be a success than a bust, particularly given the relatively modest transfer fee that was reported, £28million. But there's an argument he's been even better than expected, and the 27-year-old is convinced he is in the form of his life.
A season at Chelsea gave him the valuable experience that comes with winning a couple of trophies, but at Stamford Bridge he was mostly something of an afterthought.
The majority of his football with Chelsea was played in the cup competitions and UEFA Conference League, as he featured for just 259 minutes in total in the Premier League; that’s less than the equivalent of three full matches.
It was an underwhelming return for a player as talented at Dewsbury-Hall, and someone with fairly realistic ambitions of breaking into the England squad on a regular basis.
Suffice to say, the action he saw at Chelsea wasn’t enough to get him into international contention, and his decision to move on in the summer won't have surprised anyone. He remembers his time and the people there fondly, but while others might have been tempted to stick around and earn a presumably hefty salary with little pressure or responsibility, he wasn’t.
It's not that he was necessarily better than his Chelsea team-mates – that's not for us to say. Rather, his form at previous club Leicester City suggested he was good enough to be a key player in most Premier League teams, and 2025/26 would appear to be evidence of that as well.
This Saturday, Dewsbury-Hall returns to Stamford Bridge for the first time since his departure, eager to prove a point after an excellent start to the season that so far qualifies his Everton switch as an unequivocal success.
The midfielder is playing regularly and performing well, becoming a hugely important element to a rather atypical David Moyes team.
For most of the season, Dewsbury-Hall has played as the No 10 in an eye-catching trio behind the striker with Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye. He has struck up a good on-pitch relationship with Grealish in particular, while also ensuring his energy gives the Toffees plenty of off-the-ball presence in the final third – his 1,110 pressures is the third most of all Premier League players this season, for instance.
But in the past couple of matches, in the absence of the suspended Idrissa Gueye, Dewsbury-Hall's role has changed. He's been utilised in a deeper position, and it’s yielded two of his best performances of the campaign.
"I think my more natural position is probably an 'eight', a box-to-box midfielder, but I've always said I'll play anywhere the manager wants me to," he told Everton’s official website after their 1-0 win at Bournemouth.
In that victory at the Vitality Stadium, Dewsbury-Hall's more withdrawn position provided him with additional space to run or pass into.
Running with the ball at his feet was always seen as among Dewsbury-Hall's greatest strengths at Leicester, and this attribute was fully on display against Bournemouth as he played an influential role.
His 13 ball carries (movements of five or more metres with the ball), 10 progressive carries (moving the ball at least five metres towards the opposition’s goal) and five progressive carries of 10+ metres over the course of the match were all season highs for Dewsbury-Hall. In total, he progressed the ball 132.8 metres, about 52 metres further than any other game this term.
"It just happened that I had to drop a bit deeper [against Bournemouth]," he added. "I think the fans can see what I can bring to the game from that sort of area. I like to drive forward with the ball when I can, try to get on it, try to just help the team as much as I can, in and out of possession."
Dewsbury-Hall first caught the eye with that kind of playing style and grace at Leicester, after breaking into the team in a similar role a few years ago. As a No 10, that part of his game isn’t quite as noticeable.
He was then less impactful in that respect in last weekend's win over Nottingham Forest, but instead he was very busy defensively. Among Everton players, he ranked first for tackles (four), fouls won (four), duels (16) and duels won (10), while only Ndiaye (nine) bettered his five possession regains.
And yet, the midfielder still managed more shots (three) than anyone else on the pitch. He hit the post, scored Everton’s third goal, and played the devilish shot-cum-cross that Nikola Milenkovic diverted into his own net for the opener.
Watch Dewsbury-Hall create Everton's first goal and score the third v Forest
It was a completely different kind of performance, but no less effective.
Praise for Dewsbury-Hall hasn’t just arrived due to his performances in their past two matches, though. Generally, he’s provided a touch of class at the top of the midfield, and he was excellent for the 10-man Toffees in their 1-0 win at Old Trafford, scoring the only goal of the game with his unfavoured right foot.
In that match, his ability to play through the lines and pick up clever pockets of space was invaluable given Everton were a man down, while his all-round work rate in both halves of the pitch went some way to levelling the playing field a little more for the numerically disadvantaged visitors.
Before that match, however, much of Dewsbury-Hall’s responsibilities were more inclined to attacking. Prior to the Man Utd win, he ranked third in the Everton squad for chances created from open play (11), while only three players – their first-choice wingers and centre-forward Beto – had tallied more touches in the opposition’s box than him (23). He is joint-first at the club for goal involvements this season with six, the same number as both Grealish and Ndiaye.
Dewsbury-Hall didn’t exactly look lost while playing further forward, and his natural inclination to drift towards the left should be considered as having played a part in Grealish's swift adaptation.
The midfielder not only offered support and decoy runs; he was also a reliable and inventive recipient of passes. It’s no wonder, then, that Grealish's 82 open-play passes to Dewsbury-Hall this season is Everton’s most common passing combination when excluding defenders.
Having someone who can reliably perform in multiple roles is undoubtedly a real boost for Moyes, but it also reflects very well on Dewsbury-Hall. It highlights his broad range of skills, not to mention his football intelligence.
That range of skills also, it should be added, includes dead-ball quality. His 25 corner deliveries this season have been worth 0.84 Expected Assists (xA) in the Premier League this season, second only to Declan Rice (1.09), who has taken 18 more corners (43) than Dewsbury-Hall.
Nevertheless, it’s his enterprising and all-action style in open play that’s caught the eye most. His performance against Fulham last month earned him a nomination for the Premier League's Player of the Matchweek accolade, won on that occasion by Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku.
Watch highlights of Dewsbury-Hall's performance v Fulham
Had Dewsbury-Hall been playing top-flight football regularly in the previous two seasons, he might have enjoyed his own Elliot Anderson-like rise to prominence in a deeper role for England, which had become something of a problem position.
That ship – at least with respect to the World Cup – has probably sailed, but there’s no shortage of ambition around him at club level, with Everton currently looking as if they’re in contention for European qualification this season.
Dewsbury-Hall’s clearly been a considerable part of that, and it’s not lost on him. "I'm probably feeling the best I’ve ever felt and the way I'm playing is up there with the best I’ve played," he said earlier this week.
"I'll be honest, I’m confident going against anyone in the Premier League at the moment, and it's a nice place to be."
His timing in that sense couldn’t be much better. With Gueye off to the Africa Cup of Nations next week, Dewsbury-Hall's effectiveness from deep areas will likely continue to be important over the following month or so – and then there’s his eagerness to impress against Chelsea.
Saturday's match won't define the season for Everton or Dewsbury-Hall. But with the Toffees' ambitions building by the week, the midfielder's status is mirroring that growth.
Continue on this trajectory and he'll quite possibly be regarded as the Premier League's best signing of the season – a far cry from barely getting a kick in 2024/25.
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