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Everton v Crystal Palace
This match has not been played. Everything below is pre-match editorial published on 2026-08-14; there is no result, lineup or statistic to report yet. Team news is only shown where a club or official source has confirmed it.
David Moyes’ Everton host Crystal Palace under new manager Pierre Sage at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Everton finished 13th in 2025/26; Palace finished 15th domestically but won the UEFA Conference League under Oliver Glasner.
Two things stand out, and they pull in different directions.
The first is Everton's dominance. Across the last six meetings Everton have won four and drawn two, losing none. Palace's most recent win in this fixture in the available records is a 4-0 at Selhurst Park in March 2022 — a considerable time for a side that finished only four places below their opponents.
The second is how often this fixture is drawn. Of the 29 meetings one source has on record, twelve ended level — better than one in three. Another count, going back to 1997, puts it at 13 draws in 34.
A fixture that Everton usually do not lose and that is drawn a third of the time is a specific kind of match: low-margin, low-event, and rarely settled early. The two sides finished four points apart last season, which fits.
- Crystal Palace 2-2 Everton — Premier League, May 2026.
- Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace — Premier League, October 2025. Everton came from behind, the winner arriving in stoppage time.
- Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton — Premier League, February 2025.
- Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace — Premier League, September 2024.
- Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace — Premier League, February 2024.
- Everton are unbeaten across all five. Sources agree on the scorelines; months are given where dates differ by a day.
Last season's league record, as a baseline rather than a prediction.
Everton finished 13th in 2025/26 on 49 points (13W 10D 15L, 47 scored, 50 conceded). Crystal Palace finished 15th in 2025/26 on 45 points (11W 12D 15L, 41 scored, 51 conceded).
BRYME is not publishing home-only and away-only splits for these sides yet. Those figures exist but have not been reconciled against an official source here, and a split quoted from memory is exactly the kind of number that quietly becomes wrong. The overall records above are verified against the final 2025/26 table; the home and away breakdowns will be added when sourced.
Provisional: Everton’s packet lists Jack Grealish and Jarrad Branthwaite as longer-term absentees and Idrissa Gana Gueye as a doubt; Palace availability requires rechecking.
No suspensions affecting either side have been confirmed for this fixture at the time of writing.
This is a statement about what has been confirmed, not a guarantee that both squads are fully available. Bans carried over from last season and any late disciplinary decisions are checked again on matchday, and this section is updated if that changes.
Sage inherits a squad built for Glasner’s system, while Moyes will seek to extend Everton’s effective approach against Palace.
The supplied research identifies a strong recent Everton record in this fixture, but flags conflicting reports of the most recent scoreline for official verification.
This is the closest fixture in the round on last season's evidence — Everton 13th on 49 points, Crystal Palace 15th on 45. Four points and two places separated them across an entire season.
Neither side is an underdog in any meaningful sense, which makes the framing itself the interesting part. Palace scored 41 goals last season, the fewest of any side that stayed up; Everton scored 47 and conceded 50. Two teams whose seasons were decided by fine margins meeting on the opening weekend is a genuine coin-toss, and anyone presenting it otherwise is guessing.
The managerial transition and fixture history make this a tight opening-weekend game.
Everton 1–1 Crystal Palace
Sources: 2025–26 Premier League final table (Wikipedia) · NBC Sports — Premier League 2025-26 final table · Everton v Crystal Palace head-to-head (FootyStats)