Match report: Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace
James Tarkowski’s reaction
We’ll take a point after being 1-0 down, but before the game we were looking for all three. Their goal was a worldie. We dominated the ball and I’d have liked to see us create a bit more in open play. It’s disappointing but we’ll take the point.
We’re in a difficult run. We haven’t won for a while, but we’ve been performing all right. Hopefully there are some wins on the way.
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The result takes Everton out of the relegation zone, yet the mood at Goodison looks pretty deflated. This looked like an excellent opportunity for Everton to end their winless Premier League run. Palace were the more relaxed side, keen to impress their new manager Oliver Glasner, and deserved at least a draw.
It could have been even worse for Everton – they needed an emphatic late header from Amadou Onana to take a point afer Jordan Ayew blasted Palace in front. We’ll know in the next few days whether Everton’s appeal against a 10-point deduction has been successful. If not, they will have to go through the springtime wringer for the third season in a row.
Full time: Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace
A hard-fought draw at Goodison Park. Godfrey goes looking for a row with Ayew and is eased away by the other goalscorer Onana. It all calms down very quickly.
90+5 min Palace keep the ball in Everton’s half for the best part of a minute. Then the referee Paul Tierney keeps delaying an Everton because Godfrey won’t take it from what he says is the right position.
90+4 min Lerma is booked for a foul on Harrison.
90+2 min Palace are hanging on desperately. If Everton don’t win they will regret leaving it so late to summon this intensity.
Also, I knew I’d seen that Onana goal before.
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90 min A brilliant cross from Harrison is headed away by Ward, an outstanding bit of defending because he was under all sorts of pressure from Beto. Moments later Beto heads wide from another cross; wasn’t much of a chance.
Six minutes of added time.
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89 min A loose ball almost breaks for Calvert-Lewin on the edge of the area. Almost. Meanwhile, Ayew has been booked for dissent.
Palace, the better side for most of the game, will gladly take a draw now.
88 min: Palace substitution David Ozoh replaces the quietly impressive Adam Wharton.
87 min: Chance for Tarkowski! McNeil clips a flatter free-kick this time, and Tarkowski heads over at the far post. He put his hands to his head straight away, knowing it was a good chance. I suspect he saw it late because with a clear view you’d expect him to score.
87 min Now Everton look like they might nick it. Ahamada fouls McNeil on the left wing, which gives them another set-piece in a good position…
McNeil, on the right, curled a big, inswinging corner towards the far post. Johnstone came, didn’t get there, and Onana towered over him – and everyone else – to head in from close range. Sometimes, desire is all you need.
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GOAL! Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace (Onana 84)
A priceless goal for Everton!
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83 min: Good save by Johnstone! Everton are getting closer. A long cross is headed down by Calvert-Lewin to Garner, whose shot from the edge of the area is pushed behind by the diving Johnstone.
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79 min: Just wide from Calvert-Lewin! McNeil cuts inside Ahamada and shapes a lovely cross into the middle. Calvert-Lewin gets up early, above Richards, but heads fractionally wide.
It wasn’t quite as good a chance as the one in the first half, because Richards put him off slightly, but it’s the best Everton have had in open play since half-time.
78 min Onana’s driven cross is headed back across goal by Calvert-Lewin, towering over Andersen, but Ward reacts quickest to clear.
75 min The one sustained spell of pressure Everton have managed was just before Ayew’s goal. Everyone at Goodison seems a bit stunned, and for now Palace are holding on to their lead very comfortably.
72 min: Everton substitution Beto on, Abdoulaye Doucoure off.
72 min: Palace substitution Naouirou Ahamada replaces Odsonne Edouard.
71 min Harrison’s cross is punched away decisively by Johnstone. Both goalkeepers have played well tonight.
68 min This would be a hideous result for Everton, who have a lot of tough fixtures to come after tonight.
Everton were having their best spell, and out of nothing they re behind. Mateta wrestled to protect a flick-on and was challenged from the side by Onana. The ball ran across to Ayew, who took a touch 20 yards from goal and whistled a spectacular shot into the far corner. Pickford had nary a prayer.
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GOAL! Everton 0-1 Crystal Palace (Ayew 66)
Pick that out!
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66 min: Double substitution for Everton Jack Harrison and Amadou Onana come on for Ashley Young and Idrissa Gueye.
64 min: So close from Everton! Garner’s corner from the left is met by the abundant noggin of Tarkowski, whose header is pawed away by Johnstone. Gueye’s follow-up shot ricochets to Doucoure, who has little reaction time and can only help it in the general direction of goal. Johnstone dives to his right to slap the ball away, a split-second before Godfrey headed it into the net.
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62 min Big half hour this. Defeat is unthinkable for Everton, and a draw isn’t exactly tickedyboo either. The home crowd are starting to stir accordingly.
60 min Garner’s free-kick is headed away to the edge of the area by Ward. Mykolenko watches the ball drop and cracks a good volley that is well blocked by Ward; I think that would have gone in the far corner.
58 min A Palace corner is headed up in the air and overhead-kicked into orbit by Edouard, eight yards out. Though there isn’t a huge amount in the game, Palace have been so much more relaxed on the ball than Everton.
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56 min: Big save from Pickford! A slightly loose header from Branthwaite is collected from Mateta, who spins and plays a fine through ball to Mitchell. He tries to chip the outrushing Pickford, who stands tall to make a vital save.
Mateta has been really excellent tonight.
55 min Garner shoots high over the bar from the edge of the area. Not much of a chance; he had to take it early, on the half turn, as defenders charged towards him.
50 min Mateta tries to turn Branthwaite right on the edge of the area and goes over. The referee gives nothing and, though it looked like it might have been a foul, VAR can’t get involved as replays show it was just outside the area.
49 min It’s been a stop-start opening to the second half, which suits Palace rather than Everton.
47 min Young takes a shortcut through Mitchell and is penalised. Everton need to win this game so Sean Dyche must be tempted to bring Jack Harrison on for Young, who is not the attacking threat of old.
46 min Peep peep! Everton begin the second half.
Half-time reading
Half time: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace
Peep peep! Tense, nervous headache? Try being an Everton fan. That was an angst-ridden first 45 minutes at Goodison Park, with the home side struggling to impose themselves on a more relaxed Palace side.
Everton did have the best chance when Dominic Calvert-Lewin headed Dwight McNeil’s cross off target, but there was no sustained pressure and overall Palace will be the happier – with the score, and the way the match has gone.
43 min The Everton players and crowd have been nervous all night, a situation that is perpetuating itself. They need half-time.
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40 min This is Palace’s best spell. Doucoure does well to get between Edouard and the ball in the area, then Mateta’s shot is blocked by Branthwaite. The Everton fans roar with a kind of affronted defiance.
38 min: Off the line by Young! Palace almost score their first goal from a corner all season. Wharton’s outswinger was met at the far post by Mateta, whose downward header took a touch off Godfrey and was kicked off the line by Young.
37 min The home crowd are getting increasingly irritated: with the referee, their team and life itself. It hasn’t gone well so far, although we shouldn’t get carried away: the only save Pickford has had to make was a comfortable one.
35 min: Chance for Palace! That was a fine move. Edouard slipped Godfrey on the left, played a one-two with Mateta and fed the ball into Ayew. He turned away from a defender and swept the ball across to Munoz on the far side of the area. Munoz laid it back first time to Lerma, who shot over from 20 yards.
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33 min Adam Wharton has again looked good in midfield for Palace: calm, organised and with superb awareness for a 20-year-old.
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31 min Tarkowski produces a superb defensive header to stop Andersen’s long cross reaching a Palace player, Mateta I think.
28 min Everton are starting to threaten. Mykolenko curls a fine first-time cross that is headed wide by Young, under pressure from Mitchell at the far post. Godfrey was coming in behind him and might have had a better chance.
26 min Gaarner takes it, in fact, and soon wishes he hadn’t: goalkick to Palace.
25 min Calvert-Lewin rolls Lerma right on the edge of the area and is fouled. The free-kick is to the right of centre, though possibly too wide for a shot. Dwight McNeil will be the man to decide…
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24 min Pickford sweeper-keeps outside his area, battering a clearance that hits Edouard and ricochets for a throw-in. Could have gone anywhere, etc.
23 min: Chance for Calvert-Lewin! Doucoure cushions a pass out to McNeil, who gallops into space and curls a beautiful cross towards Calvert-Lewin. He gets in front of Richards, 10 yards out, and thumps a towering header just wide of the near post.
An in-form Calvert-Lewin would have scored that maybe eight times out of ten. Alas, this version has gone 18 games without a goal.
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20 min Tarkowski curls a promising pass over the top towards McNeil. Andersen reads it and heads calmly back to the keeper Johnstone.
18 min Everton haven’t got going, the players or the crowd, and Palace look surprisingly comfortable.
16 min Pickford sprays a marvellous 70-yard pass to McNeil in the inside-left channel. Ward challenges him in the area but can only scoop the ball towards Doucoure, who volleys wide from 20 yards.
14 min “Sad to see Roy Hodgson go,” says Charles Antaki. “He always seemed to care about football – not manically or nerdliy, but, it seemed to me anyway, because he thought it was one of those good things in life, to be thought about, relished and savoured, and a place to deal with people decently for the common good of winning a sporting game. Perhaps that’s a sentimental view, but when somebody has to leave something he clearly loved, but wasn’t loving him much back, there’s a place for a bit of sentiment.”
It’s fascinating and a little unnerving how many sports careers – great and good - end on a low note.
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12 min: Chance for Palace! Mateta cracks an excellent pass across the field to find Edouard on the edge of the area. He moves the ball away from Godfrey, onto his left foot, but shoots straight at Pickford from a tightish angle.
11 min Munoz stays down after being caught on the ankle by McNeil. The referee didn’t give a foul and, though VAR had a look, it has been cleared. As Alan Smith says on Sky Sports, it was a yellow card at most.
9 min Garner’s inswinger is headed away by Edouard.
8 min Everton win the first corner of the game on the left. Garner will take it…
6 min A long-range shot from Gueye is blocked by Andersen, which gets the crowd going a bit.
5 min It’s surprisingly quiet at Goodison, or at least it sounds that way on the TV. I expected a ferocious start from Everton but it hasn’t happened yet.
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4 min An excellent cross from Mitchell is put behind by the stretching Tarkowski, a crucial interception with Mateta waiting behind him. He would have had an extremely good chance without Tarkowski’s touch.
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2 min Palace are playing with three centre-backs: Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen and Chris Richards. These are the revised teams.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Godfrey, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Doucoure, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Patterson, Keane, Onana, Harrison, Beto, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Crystal Palace (5-2-2-1) Johnstone; Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Richards, Mitchell; Lerma, Wharton; Ayew, Edouard; Mateta.
Substitutes: Henderson, Tomkins, Franca, Clyne, Ahamada, Riedewald, Ozoh, Umeh, Raymond.
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1 min Peep peep! Palace kick off from left to right as we watch.
Oliver Glasner is in the crowd as expected. There are loud boos, presumably for the Premier League anthem rather than Glasner. It’s almost time for business.
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“Goodison feels nervous - but it has done for a long time now,” writes Gary Naylor. “Whether this is a must-win match on rational terms is debatable, but, right here, right now, anything less than a win will be emotionally shattering.
“I’m about to enter a world of pain - and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“I’d like to add Fulham plaudits to the Palace ones for Roy Hodgson,” writes Richard Hirst. “When Roy took over in 2008 we were pretty much relegation certainties, only for him to keep us up on the last day of the season. He then followed that with our highest league place in 2008-09 and topped that a year later by taking us to the Europa League final.
“He not only gave supporters the undreamed of opportunity of seeing our team walk out in a European final but along the way added probably the single greatest game in Fulham’s history, the comeback from 4-1 down against Juventus. A true hero at Fulham, never to be forgotten.”
Some weeks are bigger than others
Lose the appeal… and not only does the 10-point punishment stand but the threat increases of a second points deduction before the end of the season. The second charge, after all, covers two-thirds of the period for which Everton have already been found guilty of a £19.5m breach.
Meet the new manager. He’s not the same as the old manager.
Glasner’s on-pitch vision can be traced to his time working for Red Bull. He spent two years as an assistant coach at Salzburg under Roger Schmidt, who went on to manage Bayer Leverkusen, PSV and Benfica. Although the formation is important to Glasner, his style is based more around the behaviour of players when it comes to understanding the high press and counterpress.
Ed Aarons on a sad end to Roy Hodgson’s managerial career
Team news: Doucoure starts for Everton
Very good news for Everton: their top scorer Abdoulaye Doucoure returns to the starting XI after injury. He replaces Jack Harrison in the only change from last weekend’s defeat at Manchester City.
Crystal Palace bring in Sam Johnstone, Joel Ward and Odsonne Edouard for Dean Henderson, Will Hughes and Matheus Franca. That might mean a switch to a back five, which is how Palace played at Goodison in the FA Cup last month; either that or Chris Richards will move into midfield
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Godfrey, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Doucoure, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Patterson, Keane, Onana, Harrison, Beto, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Crystal Palace (possible 4-1-4-1) Johnstone; Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Mitchell; Richards; Ayew, Wharton, Lerma, Edouard; Mateta.
Substitutes: Henderson, Tomkins, Franca, Clyne, Ahamada, Riedewald, Ozoh, Umeh, Raymond.
Referee Paul Tierney.
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Preamble
Don’t you hate it when a football match interrupts the news cycle? Everton and Crystal Palace are competing for headlines as well as points, and there has never been a Premier League game with a build-up quite like this. One team is about to hear whether their appeal against a 10-point deduction has been successful; the other appointed a new manager a few hours before kick-off.
The news cycle can wait for a few hours. This is a really big game: not quite a six-pointer but one of the more important matches in the relegation mini-league that has formed at the bottom of the Premier League. Everton will move out of the bottom three and to within two points of Palace if they win tonight. That would make things Spandex-tight between 14th and 18th. A win for Palace, on the other hand, would put them eight points clear of Everton and seven of Luton. Not quite safe, but with less of a compulsion to look over their shoulder every few minutes.
In a sense it’s a battle of the beleaguered. Everton have had a siege mentality since they were deducted 10 points in November; the result of their appeal will reportedly be announced in the next 48 hours. They haven’t won a Premier League game in over two months, though their fixture list in that time has been on the fiendish side of difficult.
Palace have conceded nine goals in their last two away games and will be without their best two players, Michael Olise and Ebere Eze tonight. With Roy Hodgson’s fine career coming to a sad end, Paddy McCarthy and Ray Lewington will look after the team tonight.
Glasner, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, is expected to watch the game from the stands. A win for Palace would make his in-tray feel a whole lot lighter.
Kick off 8pm.
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