Everton's Opening Day Victory Over Crystal Palace

Andy Burnham took his place among the plush seats at Hill Dickinson Stadium, watching the club he grew up with step into a new season still short of the signings everyone – right up to the Prime Minister – has been debating. No right-back. No new centre-forward. No safety net.

Everton didn’t seem to care.

They punished a profligate Crystal Palace, rode their luck when it mattered, and walked away with an opening-day win that grew more comfortable as the evening wore on.

Palace waste their moment

Pierre Sage’s Premier League baptism was harsh. The new Palace manager kept faith with familiar faces and a familiar shape, and what followed could have been lifted from the more frustrating days of the Oliver Glasner era: clever approach play, glaring waste in front of goal.

Three times Palace carved Everton open before the hosts had done anything of note. Three times they failed to score.

The first warning came almost immediately. With barely three minutes gone, James Tarkowski, newly installed as Everton captain, misjudged a header and handed Eddie Nketiah the freedom of the left flank. Nketiah drove forward and picked out Jean-Philippe Mateta’s dart to the near post. The move deserved a ruthless finish. Mateta ballooned his volley over from close range.

Palace had arrived with noise swirling around them. Before kick-off the club had denied reports that Ismaïla Sarr had refused to play in an effort to force a move to Galatasaray, insisting the Senegal forward was injured. If there was disruption behind the scenes, it didn’t show early on. Sage’s side were sharper, quicker, more precise.

Adam Wharton underlined that with a pass of real class. The midfielder, whom Sage insists will not be leaving despite interest from Manchester City, dropped a perfectly measured ball over Merlin Röhl, the young German pressed into service at right-back while Everton’s search for Seamus Coleman’s successor drags on. Nketiah took it in stride inside the area, had time to pick his spot, and seemed certain to score.

Jordan Pickford intervened. The Everton goalkeeper flung out a left hand, brushed the ball onto the post and watched it spin away. Palace’s groans had barely died down when the same upright came to Everton’s rescue again.

Wharton combined with former Everton winger Dwight McNeil and Nketiah to prise open the home defence once more, Mateta stretching to prod the ball beyond Pickford. He beat the keeper. He did not beat the woodwork. The left-hand post, rattled for a second time, kept the game goalless and shifted the mood inside the stadium.

The sense grew that Palace would regret every miss. They did.

Dewsbury-Hall changes everything

Everton had been subdued until then, their new-look side still feeling its way into the contest. Gradually, though, the pieces started to click. Summer recruits Hayden Hackney, Tyrique George and Röhl began to show why David Moyes pushed for them.

There was an early glimpse of what this Everton might become when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall slid a clever pass into Röhl’s path. The midfielder cut the ball back for Iliman Ndiaye, whose low effort drew a sharp save from Dean Henderson. After that, chances for the hosts dried up. George probed persistently down the left, but clear openings were scarce.

Then Dewsbury-Hall took charge.

The midfielder, carrying some of the residual frustration from the way last season ended for Everton, suddenly burst into life. He weaved through challenges, drove into the box and saw his shot thud into Chris Richards, prompting appeals for handball that were waved away. Palace tried to spring out through Daniel Muñoz – a player Everton have looked at as a potential answer to their right-back problem – but Harrison Armstrong hunted him down and stripped him of the ball.

The tackle left a gaping lane on Palace’s right. Armstrong spotted it and fed Dewsbury-Hall, now in space and facing goal. One touch to set himself, then a searing, angled drive that flew past Henderson and into the far corner.

The resentment, the noise, the anxiety about transfers – all of it evaporated in a single, ruthless swing of his left boot.

Hill Dickinson Stadium erupted. Everton had been clinging on earlier. Now they were in front, and suddenly playing with the authority of a side that believed the afternoon belonged to them.

Muñoz almost made immediate amends. Ghosting ahead of George to meet an inviting cross from Daichi Kamada, the Colombian found himself unmarked and well placed. The delivery begged to be finished. Muñoz steered his header wide of the far post, another Palace chance tossed away.

The pattern was set. Palace had their moments. Everton had their finishers. And as the Premier League welcomes a new face in Sage, it has already reminded him of its most brutal truth: you don’t get many invitations. You have to take them.