Everton vs 22.08.26 14:002 – 0Full Time
Crystal Palace — Premier League: stats, lineups & analysis
Match report
Everton open Premier League campaign with win over Crystal Palace
Everton began their Premier League season with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at Hill Dickinson Stadium, moving Leighton Baines' side to third in the early table while Pierre Sage's Palace sit ninth after their opening fixture.
AI-assisted match report written from official match data.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute, finishing off an assist from Harrison Armstrong to send Everton in ahead at half-time. The hosts doubled their advantage eight minutes into the second half when Thierno Barry converted a chance created by Iliman Ndiaye, putting the result beyond reasonable doubt at 2-0.
Palace saw more of the ball, holding 51 percent possession, and produced a higher expected goals figure of 1.65 to Everton's 1.01, yet they managed only six shots and two on target compared with Everton's 12 attempts and four on target. Everton also picked up four corners to Palace's none, while Palace were shown one yellow card in a match with nine fouls against their name to Everton's three.
Dewsbury-Hall scored the opening goal and was rated the top performer on the pitch with an 8.0 rating, while Ndiaye's assist for the second goal also earned him strong marks.
Despite conceding 51 percent of possession to Crystal Palace, Everton were far more clinical, doubling their opponents' shot count with 12 attempts to six.
Everton beat Crystal Palace 2–0 (half-time 1–0).
Everton met Crystal Palace in the Premier League (Regular Season - 1). Kick-off was Saturday, 22 August 2026, 14:00 UTC at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Referee: Paul Tierney.
Team pages: Everton · Crystal Palace · Premier League
Key moments
- 42' Goal: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (assist: Harrison Armstrong) — 1–0 · Watch Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's goal video (42')
- 53' Goal: Thierno Barry (assist: Iliman Ndiaye) — 2–0 · Watch Thierno Barry's goal video (53')
Starting line-ups
Everton (4-2-3-1)
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1)
Sirius · Why these numbers
Before kick-off Sirius gave Everton 33%, the draw 30%, Crystal Palace 37%. It finished Everton 2–0 Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace's rating edge outweighs Everton's home ground — Crystal Palace are the stronger side on our strength rating, and their cold finishing due to recover plus the early-season home fade on top give Crystal Palace the lean. The draw at 30% is lifted by the early-season fade in home wins.
Why Crystal Palace at 37%?
Crystal Palace sit 69 points higher on our strength rating — 1837 to 1906. Sides with a 50–100-point rating edge on the road won 32.9% of 10,522 such games. Crystal Palace sit -0.39 goals per game below chance-quality — cold streaks like this have bounced back. Visitors this cold went on to win 32.6% of 1,312 games, vs 28.9% for visitors finishing normally. Both sides are inside their first six league games — home wins land softer this early in the season, so this trims Everton's column. Across 10,641 opening-stretch games since 2010, home sides won 42.8% where the rating map expected 44.9%, with draws up 2.1 — negative in every season since 2018. The 300 most similar past games finished 36–30–34.
Why only 37%?
No scored evidence points the other way. 37% is what this rating gap has been worth in games like these; the rest is the draw at 30% and Everton at 33%.
Why the draw at 30%?
With a rating gap this size the draw starts at 28.3%. These teams' recent games average 3.0 goals — a typical goals environment. Games in that environment drew 24.6% of 24,834. Early-season fixtures add 2.1 points to the draw.
What did we measure but not count?
Crystal Palace are winless in their last 12 visits to Everton. "Cursed ground" stories don't survive the receipts: winless visitors won 20.5% of 5,622 return visits vs 21.4% class-expected — the rating's own read already covers it.
Sirius probabilities, frozen at kick-off. Analysis, not betting advice. How Sirius is doing this season · Full breakdown, evidence cards and squad news in the Match Insights tab
About this match
On this page: the Everton vs Crystal Palace final score and result, goal highlights and video clips of every goal, who scored, starting lineups, match stats and the full match report from this Premier League fixture.
- Who scored and when — a goal-by-goal timeline of the match.
- Match stats — possession, shots, expected goals (xG), corners and cards.
- Starting lineups and player ratings for both teams.
- Head-to-head record and recent form for both sides.
- Watch Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's goal against Crystal Palace (42').
- Watch Thierno Barry's goal against Crystal Palace (53').
Watch the goals: goal highlights and video clips of every goal from Everton 2–0 Crystal Palace. Explore more on the Everton and Crystal Palace team pages or the Premier League page.