'There was nothing but smiles' published at 12:20 BST
12:20 BST
Sarah Mulkerrins Final Score reporter
Image source, Getty Images
There was a run last season where playing at home was tough, there was also the winless run of seven that left Everton out of the European spots at the end of the season and there was also a run of four opening day defeats in the last four years.
However, walking out with the buoyant home fans after this opening win against Crystal Palace, there was only excitement in the sunshine around Bramley Dock. New season positivity everywhere. Kiernan Dewsbury Hall had told me before the game how important a strong start was.
Once Everton weathered the early Palace threat, he was the man to get the fans off their feet in jubilation with a superb goal late in the first half. There was a little niggle to the game and some frustrations in the stands, but that melted away after the opener. The fans were nearly horizontal in relaxation after their second.
That came from Thierno Barry, who came in for criticism at his conversion rate last season. He's done well in pre-season and so the fans hope he'll be more adjusted to the Premier League this campaign. An opening day goal will certainly help. David Moyes wants more signings before the window closes, it's a long season and the challenges will be many.
But for the fans, alongside Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was in attendance, there was nothing but smiles.
Everton 2-0 Crystal Palace: What Moyes and Hackney saidpublished at 17:49 BST 22 August
17:49 BST 22 August
Media caption,
Everton manager David Moyes speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "There were bits of the first half we were good, but missed the chances on transition to score. We could have easily been a couple goals down. The goalkeeper made a worldie save. It could have gone the other way.
"Once we got the first goal it settled us, and the second one made things feel a lot easier. We managed the game well after that, contained Palace."
On the performances of Harrison Armstrong and Tyrique George: "Harrison is 19 and he is making his way. If other people were fit he might not be getting so many opportunities, but he is getting them and doing well.
"Tyrique George looked a threat from the start, hopefully he continues to do that, we want more deliveries from his as well."
Everton midfielder Hayden Hackney speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "I'm delighted with the way that went, first half we were a bit open but then we managed to put our chances away.
"We knew they [Palace] wanted to play out, we worked on pressing form the front and managed to get a goal from it."
On Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's goal: "He does that in training a lot, that's what he's got, that quality in the final third, great finish from him."
On Everton's aims this season: "Finish as high a possible, in the European spots hopefully, it's a long season and it will be difficult but I think that's the aim."
Everton have won their opening Premier League game of the season for the first time since August 2021 (3-1 against Southampton), having lost their last four MD1 games without scoring before today.
Nine of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's 12 Premier League goals have come since he signed for Everton at the start of last season. Indeed, no Toffee's player has netted more goals in the competition in that time (Beto & Thierno Barry also 9 each).
Analysis: New stadium starts to feel like homepublished at 17:11 BST 22 August
17:11 BST 22 August
Keifer MacDonald BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty Images
It has taken the best part of 12 months, but Everton are finally starting to feel at home at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
On the eve of the new Premier League season, Blues manager David Moyes likened his side's first season at their new, state-of-the-art home on the banks of the River Mersey, which produced only six wins from 19 Premier League games, to a room in a new house that only had the wallpaper up.
But by the end of this impressive opening-day performance, which didn't come without its frights, Moyes can surely start to feel as though wins are starting to become part of the furniture of Everton's new household.
It was far from an ideal start for Everton, who are still without a natural right-back, but the performances of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, mixed in with a couple of magnificent saves from Jordan Pickford, were enough to help them navigate a difficult first half, in which Eddie Nketiah and Jean-Philippe Mateta struck the post for Crystal Palace.
By the time the full-time whistle sounded on Merseyside, there was a feeling of both optimism and excitement about what this season could look like for Moyes' side if they are able to add one or two players to their squad before the window closes.
You can also listen to today's 5 Live Premier League commentaries on your smart speaker. Just say "Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to play Ipswich v Sunderland" or "Alexa, ask BBC Sounds to play the Tottenham match", for example.
Sutton's predictions: Everton v Crystal Palacepublished at 11:05 BST 22 August
11:05 BST 22 August
After the success Oliver Glasner had at Crystal Palace, new boss Pierre Sage has got some big shoes to fill.
Still, Palace have got some serious firepower and plenty of goals in their team, so I think they will be fine this season.
Goals are a bigger problem for Everton and again the key to their campaign probably rests on what manager David Moyes can get out of strikers Thierno Barry and Beto.
But I am sure Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall will chip in too because he is a wonderful footballer and, while I do see Palace scoring, I fancy Everton to edge this.
Everton v Crystal Palace: Key stats and talking pointspublished at 19:21 BST 21 August
19:21 BST 21 August
Matthew Hobbs BBC Sport journalist
An Everton side who competed for the European places for much of last season begin this campaign against a Crystal Palace team playing their first Premier League game under manager Pierre Sage.
BBC Sport examines some of the key themes going into their meeting at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.
Everton begin the new season with perhaps two main ambitions: a challenge for the European places that lasts until the end of the campaign and better form at home.
In 2025-26, the Toffees were in contention for Champions League football before failing to win any of their final seven matches.
Those fixtures included a last-gasp home defeat by rivals Liverpool and a chastening home loss to Sunderland - disappointing results indicative of wider struggles in their first campaign at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Everton's points-per-game tally of 1.2 at home last season was the lowest by any team to start life in a new stadium in the Premier League in the competition's history.
The need for a win in Everton's opening fixture of the new campaign is pressing for two additional reasons.
First, the Blues' past four opening matches of a Premier League season amount to a total of zero goals and zero points.
Secondly, they are at risking of failing to win in eight successive league outings for the first time in either of David Moyes' two reigns with the club.
Moyes broke his summer-long silence earlier this week to declare that Everton "need to do more" in the transfer market before it closes at the end of this month.
The Toffees have officially signed five players, although midfielder Merlin Rohl and winger Tyrique George were on loan at the club last season, while the departures of Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye have deprived Everton of more than 600 Premier League appearances' worth of experience.
One piece of business done so far was a swap with Saturday's visitors, with wingers Brennan Johnson moving to Merseyside and Dwight McNeil heading to south London.
It means that both players could make their debuts against their former club in a match between two sides who prefer to play without the ball.
Excluding the relegated teams, Everton ranked lowest (43.5%) and the Eagles third lowest (45.5%) for average possession last season, meaning a cagey contest could be expected.
Palace will be playing their first Premier League game with Sage at the helm following the departure of Oliver Glasner.
While the former Lens boss has big shoes to fill following Palace's triumphs in the FA Cup and Conference League under Glasner over the past two seasons, immediate priorities may involve rectifying a recurrent weakness.
Palace conceded 20 set-piece goals (excluding penalties) in the Premier League in 2025-26 – the joint most of any team – while conceding from set-pieces accounted for 39% of all goals that Palace let in last season, the highest ratio of any side.
Sage is attempting to become just the third Palace manager to win his opening game in the Premier League, but his tenure begins with something of a bogey fixture.
The Eagles have won just one of the last 23 Premier League meetings with Everton (D10, L12), a 3-1 home victory in December 2021. They have not won away from home against the Toffees in more than a decade.
Moyes on 'feeling ready', Tarkowski captaincy and right-back searchpublished at 15:38 BST 21 August
15:38 BST 21 August
Millie Sian BBC Sport journalist
Media caption,
Everton boss David Moyes has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League season-opener against Crystal Palace at Hill Dickinson Stadium (kick-off 15:00 BST).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
It is going to be a "difficult opening period" for Everton on the injury front. Christian Norgaard isn't fit yet, James Garner is still recovering from a hernia operation and Tim Iroegbunam will be absent for at least one game with an adductor strain.
However, Moyes feels "ready" to take on his 28th year in football management. He explained: "It is always a privilege to be the manager of any Premier League club, but my longest periods have been with Everton. We had a terrific year after I took over, so let's go again."
CEO Angus Kinnear telling BBC Radio Merseyside that The Friedkin Group felt missing out on Europe last season was a failure came as a "surprise". Moyes added: "I was hugely disappointed I didn't make it, I've got to say. It took me a long time to get over it this summer. I'm surprised they were disappointed, though, because there was never a time anybody told me I had to make European football."
On making a strong start to the 2026-27 season: "It is hugely important. We started last season with no great ambition that we could really get into Europe but, after the first three or four games, I was sitting here talking about us having the chance to get there. It was a good feeling to talk the positive game because we did run it really close."
New Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage plays a "very similar system" to his predecessor Oliver Glasner, just "with a few tweaks", so Everton should largely know what to expect on Saturday.
James Tarkowski "didn't have much competition" for succeeding Seamus Coleman as club captain. However, the centre-back has plenty of competition for a starting XI spot this season.
On whether Everton will sign a right-back before the transfer window closes: "I'm not the only manager looking for a right-back. It sounds as if you would find right-backs to the penny, but it isn't the case when you're looking. We have identified quite a few right-backs and put in bids, so we are right in there. We are working hard to try to get one."
The current bids have "all gone by the wayside for different reasons", including injury concerns, point-blank rejections and inadequate offers. Moyes added: "Maybe the players we already have are doing a better job than the ones we think we could buy as well. We are trying to do the right thing. We are limited in funds, so we are looking at the levels of players and deciding if they are going to be better than what we already have."
Jake O'Brien, Nathan Patterson, Merlin Rohl and James Garner have all "done well" at right-back during pre-season.
On whether he expects more incomings: "Yes, I do. Whether it will happen or not is a different thing, but I do expect more."
He doesn't want people "expecting too much too soon" from summer signing Hayden Hackney, though. The defensive midfielder has "all the right attributes" to be successful, but right now it is about "developing him".
'No second chances this season for Dibling'published at 11:16 BST 21 August
11:16 BST 21 August
Media caption,
Everton fan James Costello says he has been impressed by Tyler Dibling in pre-season but says the winger needs to show better performances during the campaign.
He told BBC Radio Merseyside: "He never showed anything that really proved his £40m business last season albeit yes, he wasn't really given a lot of chances. He was given a sort of chance in the December period when Ndiaye had gone off to Afcon, played a few games around the Christmas period but never really showed the sort of skills that he showed at Southampton."
Dibling only played for 513 minutes for Everton in all competitions during the 2025-26 season.
Costello added: "He has impressed me in the pre-season so far. He looks like a different player. Last season he just looked scared to attack and now he looks a bit more invigorated. He's had his first real pre-season and embedded himself into the team because you know, he signed like halfway through the August transfer window last season so I think this is his real chance to step up.
"Will he start? It's up in the air. I think Tyrique George has probably done a bit more in pre-season to warrant that. Obviously Brennan Johnson is a right midfielder as it stands. If he gets a chance he has to take it. There's no second chances this season for Dibling otherwise we could be seeing a loan move or even a transfer away to be honest because he is still so young but we've not seen any flashes that have really made that transfer really work so far."
Everton's numbers last seasonpublished at 09:11 BST 21 August
09:11 BST 21 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
Everton finished 13th for the second season in a row under the safe stewardship of David Moyes, thanks mostly to the fact that only five teams conceded fewer goals.
Thirteen sides scored more often than the Toffees, but that isn't too surprising given that the same number had a higher expected goals and 14 sides took more shots.
With 47 goals scored from 46.6 xG, Moyes' men were perfectly fine finishers by Premier League standards, including their strikers Beto (nine goals from 8.8 xG) and Thierno Barry (eight goals from 8.1 xG).
While only three sides faced more shots, this was offset by the fact that only three gave up harder chances to score on average, although the Toffees were still reliant on Jordan Pickford at times.
Only three keepers prevented more goals given the number and quality of shots they faced than England's number one (3.6), which helped Everton concede six goals fewer than expected.
Why was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26?published at 08:14 BST 21 August
08:14 BST 21 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
In the Premier League last season, 13 of the 20 teams finished with between 40 and 60 points - the most in an English top-flight campaign since 2003-04 (also 13).
Was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26 because the quality of the 'lesser' teams got better or the top teams got worse? It is hard to know for sure.
Given how savvy clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, the vast amounts of money that enable even bottom-half sides to sign the best talent from abroad and the Premier League's current dominance of the Europa League and Conference League, it would seem to be the former.
However, the fact that promoted play-off winners Sunderland were able to finish above 13 teams in their first season back suggests the league was maybe not as strong as we think.
What we do know is that whether because they got worse or their opponents got better, four of the sides that finished in the top seven in 2024-25 - champions Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest - took 79 points fewer between them last season.
While Forest's decline was perhaps expected given their incredible seventh-place finish in 2024-25 and their journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season, the others were far more surprising.
Sunderland and Leeds smashed the recent run of promoted sides struggling to compete by taking 64 more points than the teams they replaced in the top flight.
As a result, this season will be a bit of an upside-down one in that Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland have European campaigns to navigate while Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle do not.
Will we therefore see a bounce-back to the more 'traditional' order in 2026-27 or are we truly entering a new, fiercely-competitive era of the Premier League?
BBC Radio Merseyside's season predictionspublished at 17:56 BST 20 August
17:56 BST 20 August
Media caption,
The team at Total Sport on BBC Radio Merseyside have made their season predictions for Everton's upcoming 2026-27 campaign.
On the show Carl Woodward, Ian Kennedy, Mike Hughes, Giulia Bould and Phil Munns make predictions for Everton's league finish, the Toffees' top scorer and also a bold claim for the new season.
Barry or Beto? How should Everton's XI look?published at 09:27 BST 20 August
09:27 BST 20 August
Image source, Getty Images
As the season opener nears, fans are wrestling with what starting XIs may look like.
Speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside, Everton fan Natalie Bargery has picked her XI for the Crystal Palace fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.
She explained: "Jordan Pickford in goal, Merlin Rohl at right-back, Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski at centre-back, Vitalii Mykolenko at left-back.
"Hayden Hackney, Harrison Armstrong and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall a little bit further forward. Iliman Ndiaye and Tyrique George on the wing and Thierno Barry up front."
Bargery described Branthwaite as the "first outfield name on the teamsheet" and added he is in "100%" of Evertonians starting line-ups.
"At left-back, let's go with the more tried and trusted option," she added. "I think [Adam] Aznou is going to develop into a very good left-back but I think it's too much of a risk to start him on Saturday.
"The midfield is changed from what would be our first choice. It does lack a bit of defensive steel and that's probably why I've gone for Mykolenko and Tarkowski as a bit more of a steady choice as I see it. We have looked open in pre-season and that may not change greatly on Saturday with [Christian] Norgaard to come in so it may be a case of just trying to score a few goals."
Bargery said she picked Barry over Beto to start up front after he "did really well" in pre-season.
She added: "There was talk about Barry having a shoulder injury last season and whether that has cleared up for him a bit. I think it's a natural thing for younger players and players coming from abroad to need a season to settle in. He's the one that we need to back. I think you have got to back Barry and start him."
Where will Everton finish?published at 08:22 BST 20 August
08:22 BST 20 August
Last season: 13th.
This season: 13th.
David Moyes has been silent for most of pre-season - but when he did speak he was hardly talking up Everton's chances when he said "we're far off from where we want to be" and that he would like to do "a lot more business".
Everton have actually done a couple of pieces of smart business in signing last season's Championship player of the year Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough and experienced Denmark midfielder Christian Norgaard from Arsenal.
And they still have the rare talent of Iliman Ndiaye, while Tyler Dibling has had a good pre-season after struggling following his £40m move from Southampton last summer.
However, doubts remain over the right-back position and also whether Beto and Thierno Barry are good enough to be Premier League spearheads.
The early weeks of the season are crucial for Moyes and Everton to appease discontent supporters who felt last season's late collapse wasted an opportunity for European football.
More points for bottom-half sides but bottom two cut adrift in 2025-26published at 08:19 BST 20 August
08:19 BST 20 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
Teams in the bottom half of the Premier League in 2025-26 finished with more points than they had in years, meaning that judging them simply by their position in the table is perhaps a little harsh.
Everton may have been underwhelmed with their 13th-place finish but it was the most points a team in that position had finished with since the Toffees themselves in 1999-2000.
The points of the four places below them were all the highest they have been in the Premier League for 23 years and West Ham can consider themselves unlucky to have gone down with the highest points total for an 18th-placed side since 2010-11.
However, competition has come at a cost.
One place where the Premier League has become less competitive - because it has become more fiercely-contested overall - is at the very bottom.
While it is almost expected for one side to be cut adrift long before the end of the season, nowadays two sides are getting left behind.
The average points tally of the second-bottom side in a 38-game season is 31, meaning teams that finish there have usually competed in a relegation battle for most of the season before ultimately falling short.
After the Premier League was reduced to 20 teams in 1995-96, only two 19th-placed sides failed to reach 30 points in the first 21 seasons. But in the past decade, seven of the 10 sides to finish in that position have failed to do so.
In the past two seasons, promoted sides Ipswich and Burnley have both finished there with just 22 points - the fewest ever taken by a second-bottom side.
Relegation battles are now mostly a fight to see who takes the final spot in the bottom three, with the other two accounted for long before the final day - often by promoted sides.
But inspired by the survival of Sunderland and Leeds, promoted trio Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City will all be hoping they have what it takes to match the competitiveness of the Premier League this season.
'It's pretty embarrassing' - fans voice frustration over no new right-backpublished at 13:38 BST 19 August
13:38 BST 19 August
Image source, Getty Images
David Downie from The Blue Room podcast says "it's pretty embarrassing" that Everton will go into the new campaign without a new specialist right-back.
It's the position that has been so widely spoken about all summer, but is yet to be filled permanently, though the Toffees do still have Nathan Patterson in their squad.
Following chief executive Angus Kinnear's exclusive interview with BBC Radio Merseyside, David said: "I think it's pretty embarrassing now, especially when Everton have needed someone for so long in that position. It's really poor.
"I think Kinnear has gone about this [interview] in a really interesting way. He's obviously tried to be as frank and honest as possible, but he's sort of shot himself in the foot by saying Jake O'Brien was fine [in that position].
"That's not going to help fans that are outraged with there being no solution yet."
Image source, Getty Images
