Timing is everything, and at the end of a week that brought fresh hope of a takeover at Everton, Sean Dyche finally tasted his first Premier League victory of the season. A fresh start does not have to be confined to the boardroom. Everton claimed their first three points courtesy of a superb double from Dwight McNeil plus a second-half transformation. Defeat was truly galling for Crystal Palace and their manager Oliver Glasner.
The visitors were vastly superior before the interval and deservedly led through Marc Guéhi’s poacher’s finish. But they had no answer to McNeil’s excellence or solutions to Everton’s improved organisation after the break. A lack of confidence would have been understandable from both teams given they had failed to register a single league win between them before kick-off. But only Everton displayed signs of it during a first-half performance that faded from promising to error-strewn.
Ideas were lacking too in comparison to Palace while the dreadful body language of Jesper Lindstrøm, who threw his arms up as if in surrender after losing possession yet again shortly before the break, further irritated an increasingly restless home crowd. It was no surprise to see the ineffective Denmark international, a summer loan recruit from Napoli, hooked at half-time. The Palace trio of Adam Wharton, Daichi Kamada and Eberechi Eze ran the first-half show, dissecting Everton’s midfield repeatedly.
Cutting off the supply line to Eze contributed significantly to the hosts’ second-half recovery. They would have had to overcome a bigger deficit had Palace’s final ball matched the quality of their counterattacking play. A first appearance of the season for Jarrad Branthwaite offered Everton hope of much-needed defensive improvement but they conceded early to another set-piece goal.
Lindstrøm appeared to have dealt with Wharton’s low corner only for Kamada to dispossess the winger easily inside the penalty area. Wharton’s second bite was floated to the back post, where Daniel Muñoz headed down for Marc Guéhi to touch home at the near post. James Tarkowski and particularly Jordan Pickford were unconvincing in reacting to the danger. Pickford had a few lapses in the first half, spilling a Jefferson Lerma header from another Wharton corner.
Iliman Ndiaye saved the Everton goalkeeper by blocking Muñoz’s follow-up. Tarkowski blocked Eddie Nketiah’s drive from the resulting corner, sending the ball spinning in the air and towards his own goal. Pickford was unable to collect and this time Ashley Young intervened with a vital clearance. Tarkowski took both ball and man when Jean-Philippe Mateta cut inside Branthwaite inside the Everton penalty area. Referee Andrew Madley allowed play to continue until the central defender scythed through Eze too.
Boos followed Everton down the tunnel at half-time. They were transformed when returning for the second half by the collective effort to shut down Palace’s midfield dominance and two flashes of brilliance from McNeil. The visitors were caught cold two minutes after the restart when Young intercepted Kamada’s attempted pass to Eze. The veteran found McNeil in space and, from 25 yards out in his new central position, the No 7 curled a magnificent shot beyond Dean Henderson and into the top corner.
It was similar to a match-winning goal that McNeil struck against Everton for Dyche’s Burnley several years ago. He was not done there. Lindstrøm’s replacement, Jack Harrison, created McNeil’s second with a delightful cross to the far post after Pickford had launched a free-kick into the Palace area. McNeil flicked the ball up and over Nketiah, then swept an unstoppable volley under Henderson.
The game, the mood and the belief was turned on its head. Abdoulaye Doucouré should have sealed victory when played through on goal by Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Just as he shaped to shoot, however, Maxence Lacroix took the ball off his toes. Palace piled on the pressure in the closing stages with Goodison gripped by tension having seen Everton squander three leads in succession in the Premier League. But not this time. Branthwaite, Tarkowski and Young were to the fore as they repelled the visitors’ loaded front line to leave Glasner wondering where his first league win of the season will come from.
