Man of the Match and Player Grades Poll for Everton at Crystal Palace

Everton traveled to the nation’s capital to take on Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, and came away with a narrow 1-0 win. Despite being the better side for large parts of the game, they struggled against a typical Sam Allardyce’s side before Seamus Coleman made the late breakthrough for all three points.

The home side had the better of the opening exchanges as the Blues looked subdued after last weekend’s heroics. Christian Benteke hit the crossbar early too, after beating Ramiro Funes Mori to a cross from the left.

But after the first dozen minutes or so Everton grew into the game, with Ross Barkley dribbling neatly and seeing his shot deflected wide for a corner, and then Kevin Mirallas stung Wayne Hennessey’s palms with an ensuing shot. Barkley was busy in the first half running at the Palace defence, saw the goalie tip a shot over and then scored after Lukaku hit the post, but was in an offside position.

Funes Mori was unfortunate not to get his first of the season from a corner as his volley was brilliantly tipped over by Hennessey around the half hour mark. The hosts had the better chances to close out the half with Loic Remy stretching the Blues often, but it ended 0-0.

The Toffees dominated possession in the second half, but failed to create any clear-cut chances, with Barkley, Lukaku and Tom Davies all registering shots. And at the other end, they needed a great reaction save from Joel Robles to keep out a Benteke header from a free kick.

New signings Morgan Schneiderlin and Ademola Lookman both came on but were unable to make a difference, though Lookman looked lively and worked well with Lukaku.

With just four minutes left to play, Davies found Coleman in the right channel and he hammered home to put the Blues ahead amid boos from the home crowd as Jeffrey Schlupp lay injured well away from the play. To make it worse for the Eagles, it was Schlupp who had been marking Coleman all game.

Joel and the defence held strong as the home side went into desperation mode in vain, and the game ended 1-0.