Everton gaffer Sean Dyche and Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler united by a common goal

Everton's final season at Goodison Park kicks off with Saturday's fixture against Brighton and spread-betting firms have modest expectations for both clubs.

According to the Premier League season-points market, the Seagulls are likely to be vying with rivals Crystal Palace for tenth or 11th spot and the Toffees are pencilled in for a 16th-placed finish.

Those projections might suggest the Goodison clash will be an unremarkable contest but there are some intriguing subplots to consider.

Everton pulled clear of relegation trouble in style last term, winning their last five home matches to nil. 

However, they had started the campaign with three straight 1-0 defeats at Goodison, against Fulham, Wolves and Arsenal, and their home fixtures produced a meagre average of 2.11 goals per game.

Everton appeared to be galvanised by November's points deduction but Brighton's season was derailed by injuries after a promising start.

The Seagulls won five of their first six league games, scoring 18 goals, before taking only 33 points from their next 32 matches, beginning with a 6-1 drubbing by Aston Villa.

Roberto De Zerbi's squad was stretched by Brighton's maiden Europa League campaign and his successor Fabian Hurzeler will be hoping for more consistency of selection.

Only two players – captain Lewis Dunk and Pascal Gross, who left for Borussia Dortmund in the summer – started more than 26 league matches for the Seagulls in 2023-24.

Brilliant winger Kaoru Mitoma was restricted to 15 starts, the same number as young Ireland striker Evan Ferguson and influential left-back Pervis Estupinan.

Brighton boss Hurzeler led St Pauli to last season's Bundesliga 2 title and the 31-year-old has already made Premier League history, becoming the youngest permanent manager appointed by a top-flight club.

The fresh-faced Texas-born German coach may appear to have little in common with his slightly more grizzled Everton counterpart Sean Dyche.

However, both managers are united by the need to improve their sides' attacking output. Everton had an excellent defensive record last season but only bottom club Sheffield United scored fewer goals than the Toffees' tally of 40.

While Dyche has never been renowned for expansive, gung-ho football, Brighton's goal drought in the second half of the season was something of a surprise.

They found the net just 17 times in 19 league matches after the turn of the year and five of those goals came in February's rout of the Championship-bound Blades at Bramall Lane.

Both of last season's meetings between Everton and Brighton ended 1-1 and the identity of the goalscorers is revealing.

At Goodison in November, Everton left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko's early strike was cancelled out by an 84th-minute Ashley Young own goal and England centre-backs Jarrad Branthwaite and Dunk exchanged late goals in February's return fixture at the Amex Stadium.      

Nine of the 16 shots on target in those two games came from defenders and it will be fascinating to see whether Hurzeler can unearth a prolific goalscorer for Brighton, either in the transfer market or from the squad he has inherited.

Glenn Murray was the leading marksman in the Seagulls' first two Premier League campaigns, with tallies of 12 and 13 goals, but in five subsequent seasons their top league scorer has notched only ten, eight, eight, ten and nine goals.

Brighton are leading the chase for Leeds forward Georginio Rutter although his stats in last season's Championship – 16 assists but just six goals from 44 starts – suggest he may not be the man to eclipse Murray's record.

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