During the 2004–05 English football season, Everton F.C.

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

competed in the FA Premier League

FA Premier League

The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...

.

Season summary

Many pundits had tipped Everton for relegation that season: having escaped relegation from the Premier League by six points the previous season, Everton's task to stay in English football's top flight only seemed harder after the multi-million pound transfer of teenage striker Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney

Wayne Mark Rooney is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team...

 to Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

 after setting the summer's European Championship alight. However, the season turned out to be Everton's most successful in Premier League history: Everton kept pace with the likes of Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

 and Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 at the Premier League summit for the first half of the season, finishing the year only a few points adrift in third place. Although Everton's title challenge eventually fizzled out, they were able to see off competition from arch-rivals Liverpool

Liverpool F.C.

Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

 and fellow northwesterners Bolton Wanderers

Bolton Wanderers F.C.

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....

 to finish in fourth place, three points ahead of both team, securing qualification to the Champions League

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

. This unexpected finish was barely soured by Merseyside rivals Liverpool also qualifying for Europe's elite club competition as winners of the Champions League. In the summer, manager David Moyes splashed the cash on the likes of Netherlands and Inter Milan

F.C. Internazionale Milano

Football Club Internazionale Milano, often referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Italy. Outside Italy, the club is often called Inter Milan. They are the reigning FIFA Club World champions and Coppa Italia holders.Inter have always...

 winger Andy van der Meyde

Andy van der Meyde

Andy van der Meijde, anglicised to van der Meyde , is a Dutch former footballer who played as a right winger.After making a name for himself at Ajax, he went on to represent Internazionale and Everton, his spell at the latter club being cut due to several problems, both on and off the pitch.A Dutch...

 in a bid to keep Everton in a position to make a serious challenge for European qualification the following season.

Despite their high league finish, Everton had the unwanted distinction of finishing with a negative goal difference. This was mainly due to an embarrassing 7-0 humbling at Arsenal.

Players

Left club during season

Starting 11

Only considering Premiership starts

• #25, GK:   Nigel Martyn
  Nigel Martyn
  Antony Nigel Martyn , more commonly known as Nigel Martyn, is a retired English football goalkeeper. He played for Crystal Palace where he became the first £1million goalkeeper in British football and also won the Full Members Cup. Martyn then left to spend six seasons at Leeds United. He went on...
  
  , 32
• #22, RB:   Tony Hibbert
  Tony Hibbert
  Anthony James "Tony" Hibbert is an English footballer, who currently plays for Everton. Originally a midfielder, Hibbert now plays at right back.-Club career:...
  
  , 35
• #4, CB:   Alan Stubbs
  Alan Stubbs
  Alan Stubbs is a retired English footballer who played as a centre back. He was forced to retire from professional football due to a troublesome knee injury on the 20 August 2008. The final match of his career was against Doncaster Rovers on 9 August 2008...
  
  , 29
• #5, CB:   David Weir
  David Weir
  David Weir is a Scottish association footballer who plays for Scottish Premier League club Rangers and is a Scottish internationalist, as a centre back....
  
  , 34
• #3, LB:   Alessandro Pistone
  Alessandro Pistone
  Alessandro Pistone is a former Italian footballer.-Early career:Pistone started his career at Solbiatese and Crevalcore, two small Italian teams who in recent years have slid to the lowest tier of professional Italian football, before moving to Vicenza for the duration of the 1995–96 season...
  
  , 32
• #21, RM:   Leon Osman
  Leon Osman
  Leon Osman is an English football player who plays for Everton in the Premier League. He has spent his whole career as an Everton player, though he has spent time on loan at Carlisle United and Derby County.-Biography:...
  
  , 24
• #16, CM:   Thomas Gravesen
  Thomas Gravesen
  Thomas Gravesen is a retired Danish professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He has played for teams such as Hamburger SV, Everton F.C., Real Madrid CF and Celtic F.C.....
  
  , 21
• #26, CM:   Lee Carsley
  Lee Carsley
  Lee Kevin Carsley is a former professional footballer who played in the Football League and Premier League for Derby County, Blackburn Rovers, Coventry City, Everton and Birmingham City. Although English by birth, he represented the Republic of Ireland internationally...
  
  , 35
• #14, LM:   Kevin Kilbane
  Kevin Kilbane
  Kevin Daniel Kilbane is an English-born Irish association footballer who plays as a left back or left winger for Derby County, on loan from Hull City....
  
  , 37
• #17, SS:   Tim Cahill
  Tim Cahill
  Timothy Filiga "Tim" Cahill is an football player of Australian nationality who plays for Everton and the Australian national football team...
  
  , 33
• #7 CF:   Marcus Bent
  Marcus Bent
  Marcus Nathan Bent is an English football striker who plays for Indonesian club Mitra Kukar. A former England under-21 international, the journeyman striker has played for fourteen different clubs, playing over 570 games and scoring 110 goals in the process.A England under-21 international, he...
  
  , 31

Premier League