Everton's Youthful Midfield Shines in Victory Over Crystal Palace

Everton walked into a new season carrying the weight of last year’s collapse – seven games without a win to close out 2025-26 – and walked out of Goodison Park on opening day looking like a different side entirely.

A 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace didn’t just give them three points. It snapped a grim run of four straight Premier League opening defeats without a goal and delivered their first matchday one win since August 2021, when Rafael Benitez was in the dugout and Southampton were the visitors.

This time, it was David Moyes, back in charge and doubling down on youth.

A young core, an old-school intensity

The starting XI’s average age: 25 years and 308 days. In the Scot’s second spell at Everton, only last December’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest featured a younger side.

That number wasn’t a quirk. It was a statement.

Nineteen-year-old academy product Harrison Armstrong started. So did Hayden Hackney, the 24-year-old summer arrival from Middlesbrough. They dragged that average age down and the tempo up.

“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.”

Everton’s midfield, rebuilt and energetic, gave the game its shape. But they needed moments of ruthlessness to turn it.

Palace strike the woodwork, Everton strike first

For long stretches of the first half, Everton lived dangerously.

Palace carved them open. Twice they rattled the post – first Eddie Nketiah, then Jean-Philippe Mateta. Nketiah’s chance, a one-v-one, looked destined for the net until Jordan Pickford got the faintest of touches, nudging it onto the upright. It was the kind of save that changes afternoons and, sometimes, seasons.

“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 warning signs were clear. The punishment came at the other end.

Three minutes before the break, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall stepped up with a rasping strike on 42 minutes, a clean hit that cut through the tension and the Palace resistance in one swing.

Once that flew in, Goodison exhaled.

“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 into themselves. The nervous, fragile side of last spring gave way to something more assured.

Barry finishes the job, Palace count the cost

Thierno Barry added the second after the interval, sealing a scoreline that flattered Everton on the balance of chances but not on the balance of control.

Moyes’ team, once in front, managed the game with a maturity that belied that youthful average age.

“We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well,” the manager said, satisfied with how his side locked things down once the momentum swung their way.

Palace’s frustration could be found in the numbers. They finished with fewer shots – 11 to Everton’s 16 – but won the expected goals battle by 2.04 to 1.16. The bulk of that threat came before half-time, when they generated 1.65 xG and repeatedly threatened to rip the contest away.

They didn’t. And new boss Pierre Sage knew exactly why.

“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.”

For Sage, there was style without reward. For Moyes, there was structure, a cutting edge at key moments, and a midfield that suddenly looks like the heartbeat of something new.

Everton now turn to a midweek EFL Cup tie against Preston North End before a trip to Bournemouth next Saturday. Palace must regroup quickly, with Manchester City arriving at Selhurst Park on Friday.

One game in, the questions are already shifting: is this just a bright start, or the day Everton’s season finally changed direction?