Moyes’ Midfield Sparks Everton's Opening-Day Victory
Everton’s Premier League season finally began with a surge of optimism rather than a grim shrug.
A sharp, energetic 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Goodison Park ended a four-year run of opening-day defeats without a goal and showcased a new-look midfield that David Moyes clearly intends to build around.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall smashed home a brilliant opener just before half-time, Thierno Barry added a second after the break, and a young Everton side – average age 25 years and 308 days – looked nothing like the jaded group that stumbled through the end of last season on a seven-game winless run.
This was Moyes’ second-youngest XI of his current spell, only eclipsed by the team that beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 last December. It felt like a statement: the rebuild is no longer theoretical.
Two names underlined that shift. Harrison Armstrong, 19 and fresh from the academy, and Hayden Hackney, 24 and newly arrived from Middlesbrough, both started in midfield and both earned their manager’s public approval.
“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.”
The praise was deserved, but Everton’s afternoon could easily have gone very differently.
Palace carved out the better chances in a frantic first half. Eddie Nketiah went clean through and looked certain to score, only for Jordan Pickford to get the faintest of touches and divert his finish onto the post. Jean-Philippe Mateta then struck the upright as Everton wobbled.
“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 periods in the game.”
The pressure finally told at the other end. On 42 minutes, Dewsbury-Hall stepped up and thumped a rasping strike past the Palace defence and into the net, a moment that completely changed the mood inside Goodison.
“Once we got the first goal, it settled us. That mattered. We had big moments; Kiernan's goal was important,” Moyes said. “We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well.”
Everton’s control after the interval contrasted sharply with Palace’s wastefulness. The numbers told a strange story: Palace finished with the higher expected goals (2.04 to Everton’s 1.16) despite taking only 11 shots to the hosts’ 16. Crucially, 1.65 of that xG came before the break.
New Palace boss Pierre Sage knew exactly where the game 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.
“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.”
Barry’s second for Everton only deepened that sense of regret for Palace and underlined the difference in ruthlessness. Where Sage’s side fluffed their lines, Moyes’ remodelled midfield seized the key moments and then strangled the contest.
Everton now roll into a midweek EFL Cup tie against Preston North End before heading to Bournemouth next Saturday, buoyed by the rare feeling of an opening-day platform rather than an early crisis.
Palace, who host Manchester City on Friday, have already shown they can create. The question is whether they can finish before the season’s early promise starts to drain away.
