Everton's Young Stars Shine in Season Opener Against Crystal Palace
Everton arrived on opening day burdened by a seven-game winless run and four straight Premier League defeats in season curtain-raisers without a single goal to show for it. They walked away with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, a clean sheet and, perhaps most importantly, a midfield that suddenly looks like the heart of something new.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall smashed them in front just before half-time, Thierno Barry killed it after the break, and David Moyes spent the aftermath purring over the players who stitched it all together.
“It was a worldie save” – and a turning point
For a while, Everton were hanging on.
Palace carved out the better chances early on. Eddie Nketiah went clean through, only for Jordan Pickford to get the faintest of touches and divert his low finish onto the post. Jean-Philippe Mateta then rattled the woodwork as Everton’s back line creaked.
“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 finished with an expected goals tally of 2.04 to Everton’s 1.16, despite having just 11 shots to the hosts’ 16. A huge 1.65 of that Palace xG came before the interval. Wasteful doesn’t quite cover it.
Then the punishment arrived.
On 42 minutes, Dewsbury-Hall stepped up. The midfielder, one of Everton’s key summer rebuild pieces, unleashed a rasping strike that finally broke Palace’s resistance and Goodison’s early-season tension. One chance taken, and the mood flipped.
“Once we got the first goal, it settled us. That mattered. We had big moments; Kiernan’s goal was important,” Moyes said. “We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well.”
A young core, and a manager delighted
If the scoreline told one story, the teamsheet told another.
Moyes named a side with an average age of 25 years and 308 days – the second-youngest XI of his second spell at Everton, only behind last December’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest. This wasn’t a token nod to youth; it was the spine of the team.
Nineteen-year-old academy product Harrison Armstrong started. So did Hayden Hackney, 24, freshly arrived from Middlesbrough. Both helped drag that average age down and inject legs, energy and bravery into the middle of the park.
“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 the safety-first, battle-scarred Moyes XI many expected. It was bolder, quicker, and – once it settled – more composed than anything Everton showed in the run-in last season.
Palace pay for missed chances
On the Palace bench, new boss Pierre Sage saw a very different story.
His side did enough to win the game in the first 45 minutes, at least by the underlying numbers. They created chances, pressed Everton back and forced errors. But the ball refused to go in, and Everton made them pay.
“We played in the right way to win in the first half, but not in the second,” Sage 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.”
Barry’s second-half strike only deepened the frustration. Palace chased, stretched, and left gaps. Everton, suddenly confident and organised, picked them off.
Sage reached for a blunt metaphor to explain the feeling.
“Sometimes, you know, you do the job but you don’t get the salary at the end – and today it was like that,” he said. “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.”
For Palace, it’s an early lesson under a new coach: style without ruthlessness counts for very little in this league.
Everton break an old habit – and eye the next step
This was Everton’s first win on the opening weekend of a Premier League season since August 2021, when Rafael Benitez oversaw a 3-1 victory against Southampton. Since then, matchday one had become a graveyard of false starts and silent scoreboards.
Not this time.
A young side, a refreshed midfield, a goalkeeper producing a pivotal save, and a manager leaning into change rather than shying away from it – all of it combined to give Everton a platform they simply haven’t had in years.
Next comes a midweek EFL Cup trip to Preston North End, then a Premier League visit to Bournemouth on Saturday. Palace, licking their wounds and staring at the numbers that say they should have had more, must now prepare for Manchester City at Selhurst Park on Friday.
Everton’s season has started with something rare on Merseyside’s blue half in recent years: optimism. The question now is whether this new-look midfield can turn a bright opening act into a sustained run, or whether this will stand as just another isolated good day in August.
