Everton kick off their Premier League season at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday against Crystal Palace, with both sides entering the new campaign with contrasting ambitions and form lines.

The Toffees will be desperate to snap a miserable run that has seen them lose their opening league match in each of the last four seasons — their joint-longest such streak. David Moyes' side also failed to win any of their final seven Premier League games of 2025-26 (D3 L4), and the Scottish manager has never gone eight league games without a win during his current Everton tenure.

Crystal Palace, meanwhile, will be marking the dawn of a new era. The match will be Pierre Sage's first game in charge of the Eagles, and while 16 previous Palace managers have overseen a Premier League match for the club, only two have won their debut (D4 L10). The last was Oliver Glasner, who steered Palace to a 3-0 victory over Burnley in February 2024.

Palace Reinforcements Arrive

Palace have been active in the transfer market this summer. While they saw Maxence Lacroix depart for Chelsea, they have welcomed five new faces to Selhurst Park, the most recent being Zavier Gozo from Real Salt Lake.

Gozo arrives in south London having made an impressive start to life in the MLS, registering 10 goal involvements (six goals, four assists) in 16 league appearances for RSL, earning him a reported £11.1m ($15m) move to the Premier League.

"I'm really looking forward to playing in the Premier League with Crystal Palace. It's the dream of any footballer," Gozo said. "I'm excited by the people and the project they have going on here. I've seen a lot of it, and that's what excites me about this club as well: the success that they've had."

Players to Watch

Everton — Hayden Hackney: Everton beat off competition from Palace and Nottingham Forest to sign Hackney, who could make his Premier League debut on Saturday. The midfielder's numbers in last season's Championship were eye-catching — he ranked seventh for possession won (206), joint-fourth for possession won in the final third (33), second for chances created (85), joint-first for open play chances created (64), second for open play expected assists (7.65), and first for successful passes ending in the final third (855).

Crystal Palace — Dwight McNeil: McNeil is set for a swift reunion with his former club having swapped Everton for Palace this summer in a deal that saw Brennan Johnson move in the opposite direction. McNeil registered 32 goal involvements (15 goals, 17 assists) — more than any other player since his Everton debut in 2022 — while his 184 chances created were also a team-high in that period.

The Stats Behind the Prediction

Everton and Palace have met in the first Premier League game of the season twice before, with the Eagles unbeaten — winning 2-1 at Goodison Park in 1997-98 and drawing 0-0 at Selhurst Park in 2019-20.

However, Palace's recent record against the Toffees is poor. The Eagles have won just one of their last 23 Premier League meetings with Everton (D10 L12), a 3-1 home win in December 2021. Their last away win at Everton came back in 2014-15 under Neil Warnock, a 3-2 victory at Goodison Park, with Palace managing just four draws and seven defeats in the 11 visits since.

Palace did fare well on their travels last season — only Tottenham (63%) and Nottingham Forest (55%) earned a higher proportion of their Premier League points away from home than Palace's 53% (24/45). But they failed to win any of their final four on the road (D1 L3) and have lost their last five opening-day matches when conceding first, a run dating back to a 3-1 win at Norwich City in 2015-16.

OPTA Win Probability: Everton 45% | Draw 26.9% | Crystal Palace 28.1%