Everton Triumphs Over Crystal Palace in Season Opener
Andy Burnham took his seat among the dignitaries at Hill Dickinson Stadium, anxious and expectant, to see how his beloved Everton would cope without the signings even the Prime Minister had felt moved to discuss. No new right-back. No new centre-forward. No safety net.
They didn’t seem to need one.
Everton rode their luck, punished Crystal Palace’s profligacy and opened the season with a win that grew more comfortable as the evening wore on. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, with a finish of pure class, blew away any lingering bitterness from last year. Thierno Barry, under scrutiny with the club still hunting a striker, then rose to meet the moment with a second-half header that settled it.
For Pierre Sage, this was a harsh Premier League baptism. His Palace side carved Everton open early, squandered three clear chances and left Merseyside with nothing but regret and a potentially serious injury to defender Chadi Riad to darken the mood further.
Palace start fast, but can’t land the punch
Sage resisted the temptation to rip things up in his first league game. The shape looked familiar, the lack of cutting edge even more so. This was a continuation of the Oliver Glasner problem: neat patterns, promising positions, no finish.
Palace’s pre-match turbulence did not show in the opening exchanges. The club had denied suggestions Ismaïla Sarr refused to play in order to force a move to Galatasaray, insisting an injury kept him out. Whatever the truth, the visitors flew out of the blocks.
Within three minutes, Everton’s new captain James Tarkowski misjudged a header and the alarm bells rang. Eddie Nketiah pounced, sprinting clear down the left and rolling the ball into the path of Jean-Philippe Mateta at the near post. It should have been 1-0. Instead, Mateta volleyed over from close range, a let-off that would set the tone.
Palace came again. Adam Wharton, at the heart of so much that was good in their play and the subject of firm interest from Manchester City, picked out Nketiah with a gorgeous, arcing ball over Merlin Röhl. Röhl, pressed into emergency duty at right-back amid Everton’s farcical, drawn-out hunt for Seamus Coleman’s successor, could only watch. Nketiah had time, space and the angle. Jordan Pickford flung out his left hand and tipped the shot onto the post.
That same upright saved Everton again. Wharton combined sharply with former Everton winger Dwight McNeil and Nketiah, the move slicing through blue shirts and leaving Mateta unmarked in front of goal. At full stretch, the Frenchman beat Pickford but not the woodwork. Three big chances. No goals. Sage stared on, tormented.
The sense that Everton would not keep living this dangerously for long grew with every miss.
Everton settle, then strike
Once they survived that early storm, Moyes’s side began to find their rhythm. Summer signings Hayden Hackney, Tyrique George and Röhl all showed composure, if not yet chemistry. The hosts carved out a first opening of their own when Dewsbury-Hall threaded Röhl into space and the young German rolled a pass across for Iliman Ndiaye. Dean Henderson reacted sharply, blocking Ndiaye’s effort and keeping Palace level.
For a while, that was about as inventive as Everton got. George probed down the left, busy and brave, but clear chances remained scarce. Gradually, though, Dewsbury-Hall and Ndiaye started to dictate where the game would be played. Palace’s early swagger faded. Everton’s belief grew.
Then Dewsbury-Hall ignited it.
The midfielder drove at the Palace back line with a slaloming run, jinking into the box and firing in a shot that struck Chris Richards. There were half-hearted appeals for handball, quickly ignored. The ball broke and Palace looked to spring through Daniel Muñoz, a player Everton have tracked as a possible answer to their right-back problem.
He didn’t get far. Harrison Armstrong, relentless and alert, robbed Muñoz and suddenly there was space where the Colombian should have been. Armstrong slipped the ball into Dewsbury-Hall, now free on the edge of the area. One touch to set himself, then an angled, vicious drive ripped across Henderson and into the far corner. Unstoppable. Everton’s season, and Dewsbury-Hall’s Goodison career, announced in one sweeping strike.
Muñoz almost repaired the damage before the break. Ghosting in ahead of George, he met a fine cross from Daichi Kamada and seemed certain to score. Again, Palace’s finish betrayed them. The header drifted wide of the far post, another chance added to a growing list.
Everton had been warned. Palace had been wasteful. The scoreboard told the only story that mattered.
