Everton’s Young Midfield Shines in Season Opener

Everton didn’t just win an opening-day game. They broke a habit, reset a mood and handed David Moyes a glimpse of what his second spell might yet become.

A 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park ended a grim run of four straight Premier League matchday one defeats without a goal and snapped the hangover of last season’s seven-game winless finish. For once, the first chapter of an Everton campaign didn’t come with a warning label.

It came with energy. And it came with a new midfield.

Young core, old-school edge

Moyes sent out one of the youngest line-ups of his second stint in charge, an XI with an average age of 25 years and 308 days – only bettered by the side that beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 last December.

At the heart of it were two fresh faces: 19-year-old academy product Harrison Armstrong and summer signing Hayden Hackney, 24, plucked from Middlesbrough and dropped straight into the Premier League furnace.

“They were great, I'm really pleased,” Moyes told Everton’s website, his satisfaction obvious. Armstrong, he said, is “earning his place in the team”, taking an opportunity he might not get elsewhere. Hackney, the supposed Championship project, has “done well” and “picked things up” faster than expected.

This wasn’t a gentle introduction. Palace, under new boss Pierre Sage, came to play – and for a long spell, they looked like they might tear up Everton’s script.

Palace hit the woodwork, Everton hit the net

Before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s thunderous strike in the 42nd minute, Everton were hanging on. Palace carved them open, twice rattling the post.

Eddie Nketiah went clean through one-v-one, only for Jordan Pickford to get the faintest touch and divert his effort onto the upright. Jean-Philippe Mateta also struck the frame of the goal as the visitors repeatedly threatened to spoil the party.

“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. Both teams had their spells, but the margins at this level are brutal.

Then the game flipped.

Dewsbury-Hall, already looking like the heartbeat of this remodelled midfield, seized his moment just before the break with a rasping finish. One clean strike, and all that early Palace promise suddenly felt like a missed chance rather than a platform.

Once Everton had their lead, the mood changed. The nerves eased. The crowd grew. Moyes could feel it.

“Once we got the first goal, it settled us. That mattered. We had big moments; Kiernan's goal was important,” he said. From there, Everton tightened their grip, managed the contest and “contained Palace really well.”

Thierno Barry added the second after the interval to seal it, a goal that underlined the contrast between the sides: Everton ruthless when it counted, Palace wasteful when it hurt.

Sage left to rue missed chances

The numbers told a different story to the scoreline. Palace actually won the expected goals battle by 2.04 to 1.16, despite having fewer shots – 11 to Everton’s 16. Most of that threat came before half-time, when they generated 1.65 xG and repeatedly opened Everton up.

Sage knew exactly where it slipped away.

“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.”

They didn’t. And they paid.

“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,” he said, summing up the harsh lesson of the Premier League.

His analogy was pointed. “Sometimes, you know, you do the job but you don't get the salary at the end – and today it was like that.” Play well, fail to finish, and all that pretty build-up “goes in the waste,” as he put it. “That's why a goal is very important.”

Everton understood that. Palace didn’t act on it.

A different kind of Everton start

For Everton, this was more than a routine home win. They had not opened a Premier League season with three points since August 2021, when Rafael Benitez oversaw a 3-1 victory against Southampton. Since then, the first day had become a recurring warning sign.

This felt different: a younger side, a more dynamic midfield, and a manager who has never been afraid to trust youth when it earns the right.

Armstrong looked like he belonged. Hackney looked like he’ll only get better. Dewsbury-Hall and Barry supplied the cutting edge. Behind them, Pickford produced the kind of moment that can redefine a game, and maybe a season.

Next comes a midweek EFL Cup trip to Preston North End, then a visit to Bournemouth in the league on Saturday. Palace, licking their wounds and armed with plenty of data but no points, host Manchester City on Friday.

Everton’s new-look midfield has passed its first test. The question now is simple: was this a one-off spark, or the start of something that finally drags the club away from the edge?