Everton’s 2026/27 fixtures: the dates that carry extra meaning
Everton’s new fixture list offers more than a sequence of opponents: it gives fans a first full season at Hill Dickinson Stadium to measure, plus the return of a former manager whose spell at the club still invites debate. The Premier League has published its 2026/27 schedule, though television changes could move most games after opening weekend. The calendar therefore offers a useful outline, not a promise that every match will take place on its listed day. That distinction matters for supporters planning travel and for anyone trying to judge the shape of Everton’s season in advance.
Everton reporters Christopher Beesley and Joe Thomas have picked out the dates they’ll be watching most closely. Their choices show how a fixture list can carry several kinds of weight at once: a test of the team, a marker in the life of a new ground and a chance to revisit a complicated recent history.
Beesley: a milestone at Hill Dickinson
Christopher Beesley’s choice is Manchester City at home on December 30. The appeal isn’t simply a repeat of last season’s 3-3 draw, a thriller that ultimately suited Arsenal more than either side. That result gives the rematch a ready-made point of comparison, but one game rarely tells a full story about what’s changed. Nor is Beesley’s interest only about Everton’s run of late-year away fixtures: the poor trip to Burnley and the much better 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest, where a depleted Everton side were driven by James Garner.
The date marks something bigger: the close of Everton’s first complete calendar year at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Goodison Park remains the club’s spiritual home for many supporters, but the move to a new ground had been overdue, and the wait had held Everton back for years. A stadium can change the matchday experience and give a club a different setting for its future; it can’t, by itself, produce better football or a higher league position. That makes the December home doubleheader—Sunderland on Boxing Day, then City—feel like a marker in the club’s next chapter. Two home games close together also offer a concentrated test of how the team and its supporters are settling into the new routine.
There’s understandable frustration about how last season ended. Still, Everton reaching the Mersey waterfront as a Premier League club matters. The stadium is a remarkable asset; the real test is whether the club can use it as a platform to climb back towards the top of English football. That’s a longer measure than one result against City, and the fixture’s timing gives it a symbolic weight the scoreline alone won’t capture.
Thomas: Lampard’s return, and a Boxing Day test
Joe Thomas has a personal reason to look forward to October’s trip to Hull City: it will be a new ground for him. Away days bring their own appeal, especially when a venue is unfamiliar, but Coventry City’s visit to Hill Dickinson in early November is the fixture with the sharper edge. It will be Frank Lampard’s first return to Everton since his tenure ended badly amid deep turmoil at the club. The occasion will bring the club’s recent past into the present, with the crowd’s response likely to reflect more than the result on the night.
The context deserves a fair hearing. Lampard’s first months in 2022 brought a real connection with supporters, and Everton escaped relegation with a comeback win over Crystal Palace. The following season began with some promise, then unravelled quickly; by January, his departure looked inevitable. He has since recovered from a difficult spell at Chelsea and earned credit for his work at Coventry. Those chapters complicate any simple verdict: supporters can remember the connection and the survival effort while still judging the ending harshly.
What this reunion means to supporters is hard to predict. Thomas hopes Lampard is remembered for the bond he built and the rescue job he helped deliver, rather than only for the chaotic end of his Everton spell. Here's the thing: a return can prompt warm recognition, unease or both, and the match itself won’t settle every argument about his time at the club. The past still has a seat in the stands (and this is the part most people overlook).
What the dates can tell Everton
Sunderland’s Boxing Day visit offers another chance to shift the mood. Everton have hosted the Black Cats twice at Hill Dickinson already, and Thomas would rather forget both occasions. He thought Sunderland’s travelling supporters were the best visitors of last season; now he wants Everton to win at the third attempt and give fans a Christmas lift that signals progress.
That said, the importance of this fixture goes beyond the holiday atmosphere. A home win would give supporters a positive reference point in a season when the ground itself is still part of the story; another poor result would sharpen the questions around how well Everton are turning their new home into an advantage. The City match two days later adds a demanding second act. A strong run through those games could make the stadium feel like a foundation for the club’s next phase, while results alone won’t erase the longer work required to climb the table.
If you’re working in this space, the schedule is best read as a set of pressure points rather than a forecast. Television changes may alter dates, and the fixtures can’t say how the team will perform. But they do show where sentiment, memory and expectation will converge. For Everton, that’s the real significance of a first full season at Hill Dickinson: the ground will be judged through the football played there, one milestone and one difficult reunion at a time.