Everton's Bold Youthful Win Over Crystal Palace
Everton have spent too many recent Augusts staring at the floor. Not this time.
David Moyes’ remodelled midfield drove a sharp, energetic 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park, snapping a grim run of four straight opening-day defeats without a goal and offering a glimpse of something fresher on Merseyside.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall lit the place up with a thumping strike three minutes before half-time, Thierno Barry killed it after the break, and a young Everton side – average age 25 years and 308 days – suddenly looked like a team with legs, ideas and, crucially, points.
It was their first Premier League matchday-one win since August 2021, when Rafael Benitez oversaw a 3-1 comeback against Southampton. The contrast with the end of last season is stark: Everton closed 2025-26 on a seven-game winless slide. This felt like a line in the sand.
Youthful core, old-school manager
Moyes has not always been associated with risk, but his team sheet said plenty. Only once in his second spell has he gone younger – the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last December – and again he trusted fresh legs.
Nineteen-year-old academy graduate Harrison Armstrong started. So did 24-year-old Hayden Hackney, a summer recruit from Middlesbrough. Their presence helped drag that average age down and injected a bite and urgency Everton have badly lacked.
“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.”
Armstrong ran, snapped and offered himself. Hackney kept taking the ball, kept turning out of trouble. It wasn’t flawless, but it was fearless, and Moyes responded with warmth rarely seen during last season’s grind.
Palace strike the woodwork, Pickford stands tall
For all Everton’s energy, they lived dangerously early on. Palace carved them open often enough to feel they should have left with more than regret.
Eddie Nketiah went clean through and looked certain to score. Jordan Pickford flung out a hand, brushed the ball onto the post and kept Everton alive. Jean-Philippe Mateta also hit the upright. On another day, Moyes is chasing the game.
“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 underline Palace’s waste. They produced an expected goals total of 2.04 to Everton’s 1.16, despite having fewer shots – 11 to the hosts’ 16. A huge chunk of that threat came before the interval, 1.65 xG in the first half alone.
The pressure finally told – but at the wrong end for Palace.
Dewsbury-Hall cracks it open, Barry finishes the job
Just as Palace looked most likely to punish Everton, Dewsbury-Hall punished them instead.
On 42 minutes, the midfielder stepped into space and unleashed a rasping drive that tore past the keeper and detonated the tension inside Goodison. One clean hit, and a nervous, open contest suddenly tilted blue.
“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. Passes stuck, tackles bit, Palace’s belief seeped away. When Barry added the second after the break, the contest effectively ended. Everton managed the game with a maturity that belied the age profile on the pitch.
“We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well,” Moyes added. This time, there was no late collapse, no anxious retreat. Just control.
Sage left to rue missed chances
For new Palace boss Pierre Sage, the story was very different: a first half to keep, a second half to forget.
“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.”
His forwards had the platform, the numbers, the chances. Everton walked away with the points.
A different kind of opening day for Everton
Everton now roll into a midweek EFL Cup tie against Preston North End and a Premier League trip to Bournemouth with something they haven’t carried for a while: momentum.
Palace, who host Manchester City on Friday, must quickly turn performance into end product.
For Moyes, the question is simple and far more enticing: was this just a bright start, or the first sign that this young, aggressive midfield can drag Everton into a different kind of season?
