One-nil twice, and no defeat to show for it yet
One-nil on the sixteenth. One-nil on the nineteenth. Same ground, same scoreline, two different competitions: Wolverhampton Wanderers beaten in the Carabao Cup at Hill Dickinson Stadium on 16 September, Ipswich Town beaten in the Premier League at the same address three days later. Twice in four days Everton won by a single goal without conceding one, and nobody who has watched these afternoons will call that luck. Those two are the crispest lines in a record that has otherwise been drawn in pencil. The seven matches on file for this season: 2-0 at home to Crystal Palace on 22 August; 4-0 away at Preston North End in the cup on the twenty-sixth; 1-1 away at AFC Bournemouth on the twenty-ninth; 2-2 at home to Manchester United on 6 September; 0-0 away at Tottenham Hotspur on the twelfth; then the two one-nils. No defeats in any of them. The middle of the run is the soft part. Three draws in a row in the league — one each at Bournemouth, two goals apiece at home to United, nothing at either end at Tottenham — and those three draws are the difference between the current record and a start nobody would have argued with. The Bournemouth game had a goal in each column. The United game had four goals and a point for each side. The Spurs game had no goals at all, which after everything else in this season felt almost restful. Then Preston, and the file's one piece of pure excess: 4-0 away at Preston North End on 26 August in the Carabao Cup, four goals on the road and the only match this season with more than two Everton goals. Three days later the same team drew 1-1 at Bournemouth. This season has had two speeds and no middle gear. Wolves are the other recurring character in these records, and the six meetings with them in these rows read like a barometer. 4-0 at home at Goodison Park in December 2024. 1-1 away in March 2025. 3-2 away at Molineux in August 2025. 2-0 to them in the cup that September. 1-1 at home in January 2026. And now 1-0 at Hill Dickinson Stadium last week. Three wins, two draws and a single defeat in six, and only one of those six matches was settled by more than two goals. Ipswich have narrowed the same way. The three meetings in these rows read 2-0 away in October 2024, 2-2 at home in May 2025, and 1-0 at Hill Dickinson Stadium on the nineteenth. Same opponent, and the margin has gone from two to nothing to one. The defensive column is where the story actually lives. Three goals conceded across the five league games in the rows, and three clean sheets in them. Across the seven matches on file, five shutouts; the only goals conceded in these rows are one at Bournemouth and two at home to United. The Ipswich win on the nineteenth was the fifth shutout in these rows and the second in four days. What the table says, plainly: five league games played, two won, three drawn, none lost. Six scored, three against. Nine points from fifteen. Seventh. What comes next is not in these records — no fixture list, no word on the next round of the cup. Seven matches in and the only argument left is a small one: whether one-nil twice in four days is a habit or just how a quiet week looked. By the numbers — Premier League: 7th · 5 played · 2-3-0 · 6-3 · 9 pts · form WDDDW (oldest first). All data from ScoreCrowd's match records, retrieved 24 September 2026.