Crystal Palace vs Everton: Premier League Season Opener Preview

Crystal Palace walk into the new Premier League season with a trophy in the cabinet and a problem they still haven’t solved.

Pierre Sage’s first competitive game in charge sends his side to Everton on Saturday afternoon, a ground and an opponent that have repeatedly stopped Palace in their tracks. The Eagles arrive as newly crowned Europa Conference League winners, but history on Merseyside has not been kind.

Sage steps into the spotlight

Sage inherits a club on the rise but a dugout with expectations attached. Oliver Glasner left with his reputation enhanced; the Frenchman arrives with his already glowing.

Last season at Lens, Sage lifted the Coupe de France and pushed Paris Saint-Germain all the way in Ligue 1, finishing second. He arrives in England with a clear idea of how he wants his team to play and no intention of easing himself in. He has made it clear Palace will go to the Hill Dickinson Stadium to win, not just to feel their way into the campaign.

He will need that conviction. Palace have not won their opening Premier League fixture since 2023/24. Only two of the club’s previous 16 permanent managers have started their league reign with a victory. The dugout has not been a kind place for debutants.

There is, though, a platform. Palace were one of the division’s most effective travellers last term, taking 24 of their 45 points away from Selhurst Park. This team knows how to play on the road.

Everton’s own early-season curse

Everton have their own ghosts to confront.

Their first campaign at the Hill Dickinson Stadium never quite caught fire. They flirted with European qualification for long stretches before collapsing in the run-in, a seven-game winless streak to end the season killing off their hopes.

David Moyes still commands authority on the blue half of Merseyside, but he carries a statistic he will be desperate to shred. Everton have lost their opening league game in each of the last four seasons and have not scored in any of them. A fifth straight blank would turn a quirk into a full-blown pattern.

Home form must improve if they are to do more than hover around the fringes of the European conversation again.

A brutal record to break

For Palace, the opponent could hardly be more awkward.

They have beaten Everton just once in their last 23 Premier League meetings, drawing 10 and losing 12. Across all competitions, Everton are 11 games unbeaten against the London club. Palace have not won away at Everton since the 2014/15 season.

That run is not a coincidence. It speaks to styles, scars and, crucially, set pieces.

No Premier League side conceded more goals from dead-ball situations last season than Palace. They shipped 20 set-piece goals, the joint-highest total in the division. Those goals made up 39% of their total conceded – the highest proportion in the league. Corners and free-kicks became a recurring nightmare.

Sage cannot ignore that. If Palace are to rip up the script on Saturday, they will have to survive the very area that has undone them so often.

Everton, though, are hardly cruising into the new campaign. They failed to win any of their final seven league games last season. Under Moyes, they have never gone eight Premier League matches without a victory. That is the unwanted milestone now looming.

Something has to give.

Palace team news: new faces and fine margins

Sage’s first teamsheet may be dictated as much by fitness as by philosophy.

Dean Henderson is a doubt after twisting his ankle in Palace’s final pre-season friendly against Freiburg. If the England international does not recover in time, “serial winner” Walter Benitez is ready to step in for his competitive debut. The Argentine’s presence would bring experience, but also a new voice behind a defence still learning Sage’s demands.

On the right flank, Daniel Muñoz is short of minutes, having played just 18 in pre-season following his involvement at the 2026 World Cup. That opens the door for new signing Oscar Mingueza to start at right wing-back, an early test of his adaptation to English football and to a system that leans heavily on its wide players.

Up front, Jean-Philippe Mateta has not featured since the World Cup, leaving Jorgen Strand Larsen as the likely spearhead of the attack. Around him, there is more certainty.

Ismaila Sarr, Palace’s top scorer last season with 21 goals, is expected to start despite ongoing speculation about his future. As long as he wears the shirt, he remains the club’s most reliable source of chaos and cutting edge.

Behind the front line, Matheus Franca has caught Sage’s eye with four goals in pre-season. For now, though, the Brazilian may have to accept a place on the bench, waiting for the game to open up and the manager to turn to his spark.

Sage’s first Premier League lineup is likely to resemble a 3-4-2-1, familiar in shape but new in detail, new in voice, new in edge.

Palace arrive with a European trophy, a progressive coach and a sense that the ceiling has lifted. Everton stand in the way with history, home soil and their own frustrations to purge.

One of these long-running storylines is about to be rewritten. The question is whether it’s Palace’s Everton hoodoo that breaks first, or Moyes’ curse of opening day.