David Moyes was speaking after his Everton side lost 2-0 to Chelsea on Saturday afternoon

Everton manager David Moyes admitted he put Merlin Rohl into the side to combat a Chelsea opponent who didn’t end up playing, while he hopes that James Garner can get back to the form he showed last season.

The Blues suffered their first defeat of the season as Xabi Alonso’s side triumphed 2-0 at Hill Dickinson Stadium through a Pedro Neto brace.

Brennan Johnson lost his starting place on the right wing but rather than Tyrique George starting to face his previous club for the first time, Moyes opted to pick Rohl.

And the Blues boss said: “We actually expected Pep Chavarria to play at left-back for Chelsea. We thought that with his attacking work and what was required, the person who we thought would be best to work against him would be Merlin Rohl in that position.

“So that was the reason for that decision. As it was, he wasn’t playing.

“But Merlin has played wide right, he’s played right-back, so he’s done both roles for us. I thought he probably did better when he actually went to right-back because he put in a couple of really good crosses for me in the second half.”

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Garner played all but the last six minutes of the 2-0 away defeat at Chelsea in 2025/26 in Everton’s 41 matches in all competitions last season and was named Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season. Despite earning a recall to the England squad for the recent international break, the 25-year-old has not been back at his best so far.

However, when asked if the Blues are having to manage Garner’s recovery after he came back early from a hernia operation, Moyes said: “No, we have managed it, but Jimmy has pushed on really hard and got himself into the England squad. But he’s still got a little bit to go to get his best levels which he showed last year.

“So, we’re hoping that he gets back to that. He’s still a little bit off it, but we want to keep pushing him and he’s a hugely important player for us.”

It was also pointed out that Everton conceded in the opening minutes of the second half for the third time in the last three matches after other early strikes after the interval from Bryan Mbeumo of Manchester United and Joe Gelhardt of Hull City but the Glaswegian gaffer has greater concern that his team shipped two goals in each of those games.

Moyes said: “I’m more disappointed that we lost two goals today and we lost two at Hull. I’ll need to look to see what and I’ve got an idea of why, but it’s not really like us.

“Today we lacked any real chances or creativity at times. I can only really think of Thierno’s header in the first half for any chance.

“It wasn’t that overall we played that badly. We just didn’t do enough and we didn’t make any chances.

“So, it meant if we got anything wrong defensively today, we were liable to be punished, and we got a couple of things wrong. We were really unfortunate with the free-kick, which could have, bounced in our favour but it bounced to their favour.”