Everton Opens Premier League Season with Win Against Crystal Palace
Everton had to ride out a storm, a few heart-in-mouth moments and the width of a post, but they finally have what has eluded them for five long years: a winning start to a Premier League season.
At the Hill Dickinson Stadium, under a sharp Merseyside sky, David Moyes’ side beat Crystal Palace 2-0 thanks to goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry, either side of half-time. It sounds straightforward. It wasn’t.
Palace strike first – and miss
Before Everton could settle into their new-season rhythm, they were almost behind.
With less than four minutes played, James Tarkowski’s weak defensive header handed Palace a golden chance. Eddie Nketiah pounced, slipped the ball into Jean-Philippe Mateta, and the away end held its breath. Mateta, inside the area, leaning into the shot, had Jordan Pickford beaten. He blazed over.
No Ismaila Sarr, no early lead. The tone of Palace’s afternoon was set in that moment.
Sarr, last season’s 21-goal top scorer and the spearhead of their Conference League triumph, had not even travelled. New manager Pierre Sage left him out as talk of a move to Galatasaray rumbled on. Palace arrived on Merseyside short of firepower and would leave wondering how different the day might have been with their main finisher on the pitch.
Everton’s response was sharp. Eight minutes after Mateta’s miss, Dewsbury-Hall threaded a clever pass into makeshift right-back Merlin Röhl, pushed high and wide to plug a gap in Moyes’ squad. Röhl cut the ball back for Iliman Ndiaye, who met it cleanly but too close to Dean Henderson. A let-off for Palace. A warning of what was coming.
Woodwork, Pickford and a turning tide
For Sage, this was a brutal introduction to the Premier League. His Palace side did plenty right in the first half. They pressed, they ran, they created chances. The problem was that every big moment seemed to tilt against them.
Nketiah and Mateta both rattled the woodwork, each effort inches away from flipping the script and dragging Everton back into the anxiety of last season’s winless run. Pickford produced a couple of outstanding saves to keep the scores level, flinging himself across his goal to repel Palace pressure as Everton’s lack of a natural right-back was exposed time and again.
The pressure finally told – just not in the way Sage expected.
Three minutes before the break, with Palace sensing an opener, Everton landed the first real punch. The ball fell to Dewsbury-Hall on the edge of the area, and he didn’t hesitate. One touch to set, one clean, driven strike arrowed low into the far corner beyond Henderson. Hill Dickinson erupted. Palace, who had done so much of the early running, were suddenly chasing.
For Everton, that goal carried more weight than a standard opener. It snapped an eight-game winless run in the league stretching back to the end of last season and gave Moyes’ players something they had lacked for months: belief.
Barry doubles up, Palace unravel
If the first half had been nervy, the second began with Everton playing like a side who had finally remembered how to enjoy themselves at their new home.
Eight minutes after the restart, the advantage doubled. Ndiaye, bright and busy all afternoon, worked space on the flank and whipped in a wicked cross. Barry attacked it with conviction, stealing in to head past Henderson from close range. Two-nil, and suddenly Hill Dickinson felt less like a construction site and more like a proper Premier League home.
Palace’s afternoon then darkened further.
Midway through the second half, defender Chadi Riad went down in obvious distress, appearing to suffer a serious knee injury. The stretcher came on, teammates looked away, and Sage’s expression told its own story. Losing a key defender on top of Sarr’s absence and a two-goal deficit turned a difficult day into a grim one.
From there, Everton managed the game. Moyes’ team, still patched up at right-back and far from complete in the transfer market, leaned on Pickford’s composure, Dewsbury-Hall’s control and a newfound calm in front of their own fans. Palace pushed, but the belief had drained. The post, which had denied them twice, felt like an extra Everton defender.
A new home, finally starting to feel like one
Moyes has spoken about Hill Dickinson Stadium as if it were a half-finished room in a new house – the wallpaper up, but nothing quite lived in. Last season’s return of six wins from 19 home league games backed that up. It felt cold, unfamiliar, almost cursed.
This performance didn’t banish every doubt, but it changed the mood. Everton were not perfect. They were, however, resilient, clinical when it mattered and anchored by big individual displays. As the final whistle blew, the anxiety that often hangs over new grounds had been replaced by something rarer on opening day for Everton: optimism.
For the first time since Rafa Benitez oversaw a 3-1 win against Southampton in August 2021, they have started a Premier League campaign with three points. For the first time in months, Moyes can look at his team and his stadium and see the outline of something that might grow.
Sage’s harsh welcome and Palace’s crossroads
On the opposite touchline, Sage cut a deflated figure as players and staff trudged off. The Frenchman arrived in south London off the back of an impressive Ligue 1 campaign with RC Lens; the Premier League welcomed him with fine margins, cruel ricochets and an unforgiving scoreline.
He becomes the 15th manager to lose his first Premier League match in charge of Crystal Palace, and the circumstances around him are far from straightforward. The club has just come off a remarkable 12 months, lifting three trophies, including the FA Cup. Oliver Glasner has gone. Maxence Lacroix has departed. Sarr may yet follow before the window shuts.
Even the most optimistic Palace supporters knew a period of transition was coming. Saturday simply underlined how bumpy that road could be.
On another day, with Sarr on the pitch, with one of Nketiah’s or Mateta’s efforts bouncing in off the post instead of out, it might have been Palace celebrating in the away dressing room. Instead, they left empty-handed, nursing an injury, ruing missed chances and staring at a season that could swing either way.
Everton, by contrast, walked back down the tunnel to a noise that has been rare in these parts: early-season hope. With a couple of smart additions before the window closes, this might just be the year Hill Dickinson stops feeling new and starts feeling like a fortress.
