Vitalii Mykolenko makes Tottenham admission and shares Everton fitness update

Vitalii Mykolenko is happy with his start to Everton's 2026-27 season.

The 27-year-old received the backing of Everton chiefs earlier this summer, signing a new three-year contract.

He's a player who splits opinion among Toffees supporters, but is one that David Moyes clearly trusts.

Now in his fifth full season on Merseyside, Mykolenko is perhaps in the best form of his Everton career to start this campaign.

He'll be hoping to carry that into his international duties with Ukraine over the next couple of weeks as well.

Despite this, the left-back has confessed that in the recent Premier League clash with Tottenham, he endured some of the most challenging moments of his career.

Why was Vitalii Mykolenko sure Everton would lose to Tottenham?

Everton remain unbeaten in all competitions to start the 2026-27 season, and much of that has been down to their watertight defence.

Moyes' men have only conceded three Premier League goals from the first five games, and are becoming one of the toughest sides to beat in the division.

However, Mykolenko was convinced that this would all change when the Toffees travelled to Tottenham earlier this month.

Speaking via Dynamo.Kiev.UA, he's revealed that the opening stages of that match, which ended in a 0-0 draw, were some of the hardest of his career.

Spurs came flying out of the blocks in that match, and Mykolenko didn't think his team were going to come out of it unscathed.

"Well, the head coach (Ukraine, Andrea Maldera) was actually talking about that game in theory. And he, well, he must have been watching, because I played in it," he said.

"We were playing against Roberto De Zerbi. And he's probably a teammate, a friend of his. I don't know for sure, but he was telling me what I felt in the first 20 minutes of the match.

"I thought we'd lose 3-0 and that would be the end of it. But we know how to be patient, and it turned out to be a really good game in the end.

"I was really happy that we didn't concede a single goal in that game. But the first 15-20 minutes were probably some of the toughest in my career."

During his time with Everton, Mykolenko has suffered with numerous niggling injuries, but where does he feel he's at fitness-wise right now?

Why Everton fans will love Mykolenko's fitness verdict

Recurring injury patterns of largely minor problems have served to consistently disrupt Mykolenko's progress as an Everton player.

Indeed, he's missed numerous games in every single season since he joined the Toffees in January 2022.

So far in 2026-27, however, the Ukrainian hasn't been on the treatment table, and in his mind, that's not a coincidence at all.

"This is probably the first pre-season I've started and completed... So, I'm off to a very good start to the season," he continued.

"Overall, I'm pleased with myself, but I realise I can still play better physically and technically, so I want to improve even more. It's just the start of the season."

Ukraine begin their Nations League campaign on Friday evening away at Hungary, before further clashes with Georgia, Northern Ireland and Hungary again in this break.

Everton will be hoping Maldera wraps him in cotton wool too, as Moyes has very little depth behind Mykolenko at his left-back position.