Everton Secures Premier League Opening Win Against Crystal Palace

Everton shook off an early jolt and an old habit at the same time, grinding past Crystal Palace at Hill Dickinson Stadium to open a Premier League season with a win for the first time in five years.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry supplied the goals, one either side of half-time, to deliver Everton’s earliest league victory in a campaign since Rafa Benitez oversaw a 3-1 win against Southampton back in August 2021. It also snapped an eight-game winless run in the Premier League for David Moyes’ side, stretching back to the dark, stumbling end of last season.

For Palace and their new manager Pierre Sage, it was a harsh introduction. The Frenchman, who built his reputation guiding RC Lens through an impressive Ligue 1 season, became the 15th manager to lose his first Premier League game in charge of the Eagles.

Palace miss Sarr, and their chance

Palace were already on the back foot before kick-off. Ismaila Sarr, last season’s top scorer and the man who dragged them to a Conference League title with 21 goals in all competitions, was nowhere to be seen. Sage left the 28-year-old out of the travelling squad amid ongoing links with Galatasaray, and the void was glaring within minutes.

With less than four minutes gone, Palace carved Everton open. Eddie Nketiah pounced on a flimsy defensive header from James Tarkowski and rolled the ball across for Jean-Philippe Mateta. Inside the area, unmarked, he leaned back and blazed over. A huge chance, wasted.

That miss jolted Everton into life. Eight minutes later, Dewsbury-Hall threaded a clever pass into Merlin Rohl, the makeshift right-back stepping forward with purpose. Rohl picked out Iliman Ndiaye, whose low effort was straight at Dean Henderson. Palace had been warned.

The pattern of the half was cruel on Sage. Palace carried a real threat. Nketiah rattled the woodwork. Mateta hit the frame as well. Jordan Pickford flung himself around his goal, and Everton’s defending creaked.

Then the punishment came.

Three minutes before the interval, Dewsbury-Hall took aim from the edge of the box and arrowed a precise strike into the far corner. Against the run of Palace’s chances, Everton led, and Hill Dickinson finally had a Premier League roar it could savour.

Barry doubles up, Palace’s day unravels

Any notion of a slow, cagey restart vanished almost instantly. Eight minutes into the second half, Everton struck again.

Ndiaye, who had grown into the game, whipped in a vicious cross from the flank. Barry attacked it with conviction, thundering a close-range header beyond Henderson. Two shots of quality, two goals, and suddenly Everton had breathing space that had seemed unlikely for much of the first half.

For Palace, the afternoon then turned from frustrating to grim. Midway through the second period, defender Chadi Riad went down in clear distress. After lengthy treatment, he was carried off on a stretcher, apparently with a serious knee injury. The away end fell quiet. So did Sage on the touchline.

Everton, still operating without a natural right-back, did not have everything their own way. The first half had been jittery, and Palace’s forwards kept asking questions. But Dewsbury-Hall’s influence in midfield, coupled with several outstanding saves from Pickford, steadied Moyes’ team when they most needed it.

By full-time, the narrative had flipped. The same stadium that felt unfamiliar and unforgiving last season suddenly felt like home.

Hill Dickinson starts to feel like home

Moyes had described Everton’s first year at Hill Dickinson Stadium as like moving into a new house with only the wallpaper up – the structure there, the comfort missing. Six wins from 19 league games told its own story.

This performance did not erase those struggles, but it changed the mood. The win, the clean sheet, the sense that Dewsbury-Hall and Barry can add a new edge to Everton’s play, all fed into a fresh optimism on Merseyside. As the final whistle went, there was a clear feeling that, with one or two smart additions before the window closes, this season could look very different.

On the opposite side of the pitch, the picture was far bleaker. Palace’s players and staff trudged off, heads down. Sage, arms folded, looked drained.

His first taste of Premier League management had laid bare the division’s unforgiving margins. On another afternoon, with Sarr available and those early efforts a few inches lower or inside the post, Palace might have been the ones dancing back into the dressing room.

Instead, they were left cursing the woodwork, the absence of their star forward, and the realities of transition.

Palace have been living in rare air over the past 12 months: three trophies, including the FA Cup, and a surge of belief under Oliver Glasner. But Glasner has gone. Maxence Lacroix has departed. Sarr may yet follow before the window shuts.

Replicating the highs of 2025 and 2026 will be a monumental task. On this evidence, the climb has already begun – and it looks steep.