Everton's Youthful Midfield Shines in 2-0 Win Over Palace
Everton arrived at Goodison Park with the weight of last season’s seven-game winless finish still hanging over them. Ninety minutes later, that baggage had been dumped at the door.
A vibrant, fearless midfield drove a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, and David Moyes could barely hide his satisfaction.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall smashed home a thunderous opener just before half-time, Thierno Barry added a composed second after the break, and a young Everton side – average age 25 years and 308 days – finally remembered what it feels like to start a Premier League season on the front foot.
They had not won on opening day since August 2021, when Rafael Benitez watched them beat Southampton 3-1. Four straight defeats without scoring had followed. This felt very different.
Youth and energy in the middle
The teamsheet told its own story. Moyes rolled the dice on youth, and it paid off.
Nineteen-year-old academy product Harrison Armstrong was handed his chance. Summer signing Hayden Hackney, 24, fresh from Middlesbrough, stepped straight into the engine room. Their presence dragged down the average age to one of the lowest of Moyes’ second spell – only a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last December featured a younger starting XI.
“They were great, I'm really pleased,” Moyes told Everton’s website. “Harrison is earning his place in the team. He's got an opportunity here, where at other clubs he might not have. He's shown lots of good things.
“With Hayden, sometimes boys from the Championship need time, but he's done well. I have to give him praise for how quickly he's picked things up.”
This was not a gentle introduction. Palace snapped into tackles, broke quickly and, for long spells in the first half, looked more likely to score.
Palace hit the woodwork, Everton hit back
Everton’s clean sheet owed plenty to fortune and one huge moment of quality from Jordan Pickford.
Eddie Nketiah burst clear for a one-v-one and seemed certain to score. Pickford got the faintest of touches, enough to divert the ball onto the post. Jean-Philippe Mateta also struck the upright as Palace repeatedly carved openings before the interval.
“Both teams had periods in the game. We could easily have been a couple of goals down – it was a worldie save and it could have gone the other way,” Moyes admitted.
The numbers back him up. Palace lost 2-0 but won the xG battle 2.04 to 1.16, despite taking just 11 shots to Everton’s 16. Of that, 1.65 xG came in a first half they largely controlled.
But dominance without ruthlessness rarely survives in the Premier League.
The game flips on Dewsbury-Hall
Just as Palace looked set to go in at 0-0 with the momentum, Dewsbury-Hall changed everything.
Everton worked the ball into space and the midfielder unleashed a rasping strike in the 42nd minute, a hit that flew beyond the goalkeeper and into the net. One chance, one finish, and Goodison’s tension turned into noise.
“Once we got the first goal, it settled us. That mattered. We had big moments; Kiernan's goal was important,” Moyes said.
From there, Everton grew in control. The earlier chaos faded. Passes started to stick, the press looked sharper, and Palace’s early fluency deserted them.
Barry’s second and Palace’s regret
The pressure finally told again after the break. Barry, part of that retooled midfield, found the second goal that killed the contest and underlined the difference between the sides: Everton took their moments, Palace wasted theirs.
New Eagles boss Pierre Sage cut a frustrated figure. His team had done much of the hard work but left empty-handed.
“We played in the right way to win in the first half, but not in the second,” he told Palace TV. “But when you play in this direction, you have to score.
“We missed two or three big opportunities, and we gave the goal to the opponent. That's why the second half was difficult, with them getting the second goal too.
“Sometimes, you know, you do the job but you don't get the salary at the end – and today it was like that.
“Sometimes you play very well and you can keep it on YouTube, and when you lose your finishing, you take the clip and you put it in the waste. That's why a goal is very important.”
Everton, by contrast, managed the game with a maturity that belied their age profile.
“We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well,” Moyes said, content that his young midfield had passed a serious examination.
What comes next
The challenge now is to turn a statement opening day into a pattern, not a one-off.
Everton head to Bournemouth next Saturday in the league, with an EFL Cup trip to Preston North End in midweek. Palace, nursing the sense of a missed opportunity, must quickly sharpen their finishing before Manchester City visit on Friday.
For Moyes, though, this was exactly the kind of start he needed: a clean sheet, two confident goals, and a midfield built on youth and hunger that looks ready to drag Everton into a new phase.
