By OkayGoal
Everton beat Crystal Palace 2-0 to open their season with three points and while it was far from perfect, there was plenty in this Everton vs Crystal Palace result to genuinely enjoy. Here are three things that stood out.
Let’s start with the obvious, it could easily have gone the other way. Jean-Philippe Mateta hit the post inside the first quarter of an hour and Jordan Pickford made a good stop just after, so this was not the assured, front-foot start some might have hoped for. But once Everton found their feet, this became a genuinely comfortable afternoon and by full time it had the feel of a proper platform to build a season on rather than a nervy opening-day scrape.
Harrison Armstrong and Hayden Hackney brought balance in the second phase
The biggest takeaway from Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace is simple. Harrison Armstrong and Hayden Hackney were the best two midfielders on the pitch, and it was not particularly close.
Armstrong especially looked like a player enjoying every second of it, nicking the ball off Palace’s Adam Wharton at one point in a passage of play that summed up the afternoon. Both players wanted the ball, both wanted to carry it forward, and there was never a moment where either looked like hiding.
What made it work was the shape underneath them. Rather than a rigid six-and-eight setup, this looked closer to two genuine box-to-box eights with a ten sitting just off them, both willing to press, both willing to run in behind, both comfortable enough on the ball to keep Palace chasing shadows for long spells. It says everything about how well Everton’s midfield functioned that Palace’s own best players on the day were still second best to Everton’s central three.
Pace on both wings has finally given Everton some balance
For a long time, Everton’s threat out wide leaned heavily on one side of the pitch.
With genuine pace and directness now on both flanks with Tyrique George and Iliman Ndiaye, defences can no longer simply shift their focus to shut down one dangerous winger because there is an identical problem waiting on the other side. That symmetry showed up repeatedly against Palace, with runners in behind, balls whipped into the box, and defenders never quite sure which side was going to hurt them next.
It also freed up the middle of the pitch. With width guaranteed from deep, Everton’s attacking players had the license to drift inside and combine, which is exactly what produced the opening goal, a lovely delayed pass out wide that was worked back inside for a header. The second, a composed finish after a shot had already been saved moments earlier, was a reward for a team that kept probing rather than panicking once the first opportunity did not fall.
Squad depth question remain at Hill Dickinson Stadium
For all the good, this was not a spotless defensive display.
Everton could easily have gone behind in the first twenty minutes, and there were further moments later on where a sharper Palace side punishes the space in behind. The right-back position in particular remains unresolved. Whoever plays there offers plenty going forward but leaves gaps in behind that a better team would exploit, and the debate over whether that gets solved through coaching, through a new signing, or through simply accepting the trade-off, is not going away any time soon.
There is also a squad management story bubbling under the surface. Tyler Dibling did not get a single minute off the bench despite arguably being Everton’s best performer the previous weekend, and it is hard not to feel for a young player watching on while the games he needs are handed to others. With the transfer window still open, decisions made in the next week or so, both in and out, will shape how much of this early promise Everton can actually sustain.