David Moyes has been assessing the impact of Everton’s summer signings so far, including Tyler Dibling

David Moyes is pleased with how his new-look Everton team have started the season. But he has warned that progress might move slower than some would like, while also stressing that Tyler Dibling, his biggest signing of the summer, is a long-term investment.

The Blues went into the current international break by preventing FA Cup and Community Shield winners Crystal Palace from extending their unbeaten run to 20 matches by pulling of a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory on Sunday thanks to Jack Grealish’s stoppage-time winner.

Oliver Glasner’s high-flying Eagles were looking to move up to second in the Premier League table after they went ahead but the loss ensures that Everton, who remain undefeated at their new 52,769 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium home on the Mersey waterfront, are just one point behind them.

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Throughout the club’s participation in the Premier League Summer Series, Moyes repeatedly expressed his concerns, not only about a need to sign new players but a desire to get them early enough in the window so as to ensure they would be effective early in the season.

Ahead of their final game in the tournament, against Manchester United in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Moyes said: “I’m confident we will have quite a few new players in. The bedding in period that we alluded to last week is worrying me because time is shortening down, but I’m really positive that we’ll get quite a few new players in before the window shuts.”

Reflecting upon those issues, Moyes was asked how he would assess progress so far, with Everton, who were one point above the relegation zone with he returned at the midway point of last season, before going on to finish 13th, currently sitting eighth with 11 points from their first seven matches.

The 62-year-old said: “I think we’re pleased but we could never get it all done, we couldn’t get things all singing and all dancing, in this window. Every club that brings players in is going to take time to have a look and see how they’re going to go.

“I think with our start to the season you’d say: ‘They’ve started well, the players have come in and done well’. It’s very rare that you’d get all your new players to come in and be right on it.

“There are a lot of clubs who have spent a lot of money and maybe all their players aren’t all zinging at the moment and doing everything right. But I think a couple of the ones we’ve brought in have made a big difference and helped us to get off to a really good start.

“Those boys are mainly the ones who have got Premier League experience and that’s the big difference. I think having the Premier League experience, especially for a club like us, is important.

“It was difficult for us. We genuinely were in for so many players, and we didn’t get so many.

“We weren’t a big attraction at all. So, we’re going to have to build slowly, pick the league position up as we go along, keep trying to be positive and move forward a little, one step at a time.

“It won’t be big steps, so we need to make sure we’re keeping everyone on the level over what’s expected.”

In terms of transfer fee paid, even though Everton were able to successfully negotiate Southampton done from an asking price of £50million plus a 25% sell-on clause for Dibling to the initial £35million they forked out, the attacking midfielder was still their most expensive purchase of the window among their nine recruits.

With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall serving a one-match suspension against Crystal Palace for picking up five bookings, the 19-year-old made his first Premier League start but was hooked by his Glaswegian gaffer at the interval after a quiet display.

Moyes believes that Dibling, who is in Lee Carsley’s England Under-21 international squad away to Moldova tonight, has plenty to offer, but Evertonians might need to be patient with him. He said: “Tyler is a quiet personality, but he’s certainly a technically gifted footballer, that’s for sure and he can do a lot of good things.

“He’s probably more of what we’re looking for in terms of he’s been through the Premier League and in the Championship and done a little bit more in our football. “He might be a bit further ready than his age would suggest. We like him and we’re pleased to have him, and we hope that if we don’t see enough of him, then we certainly will in the years to come as well.”