Everton make flying start as Moyes' young guns deliver

Everton got their 2026-27 Premier League campaign off to a flying start with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on opening day, and David Moyes could hardly have been more pleased with the fresh-faced midfield that delivered it.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry struck either side of the interval to end a winless run that had stretched to seven matches at the close of the 2025-26 season. It was the first time Everton have won their opening fixture of a Premier League campaign since August 2021, when they beat Southampton 3-1 under Rafael Benitez. In the four seasons since, the Toffees had lost each of their matchday-one games without scoring.

The result was all the more notable for the side Moyes put out. With an average age of 25 years and 308 days, it was the second-youngest starting XI of his second spell in charge — behind only the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last December, when the average was 25 years and 176 days. The introductions of 19-year-old academy graduate Harrison Armstrong and 24-year-old summer signing Hayden Hackney, recruited from Middlesbrough, helped drag that average down.

Moyes was fulsome in his praise for both debutants and youngsters. "They were great, I'm really pleased," Moyes told Everton's official 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."

Everton were, by Moyes' own admission, fortunate to be level until Dewsbury-Hall's rasping 42nd-minute strike. Eddie Nketiah and Jean-Philippe Mateta both struck the woodwork for Palace, with Jordan Pickford tipping Nketiah's one-on-one effort onto the post.

"Both teams had periods in the game. We could easily have been a couple of goals down – it was a worldie save and it could have gone the other way," Moyes said. "Once we got the first goal, it settled us. That mattered. We had big moments; Kiernan's goal was important.

"We managed the game well after that and contained Palace really well."

Palace's profligacy told in the underlying numbers: they won the expected goals (xG) battle 2.04 to 1.16 despite having five fewer shots than Everton's 16. New boss Pierre Sage was left to rue a second-half drop-off after a promising opening 45 minutes.

"We played in the right way to win in the first half, but not in the second," Sage 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."

Looking ahead, Everton travel to Bournemouth in their second league game next Saturday, sandwiched between a midweek EFL Cup tie against Preston North End. Palace, meanwhile, host Manchester City on Friday.