Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts: The Blues maybe did enough to win the game, but didn’t take their chances when they got them. Communication throughout the team still needs improving. Quiet debuts from Gbamin and Kean, they both will settle in, might take a few weeks.

Premier League

90+4’ - There’s the game, final score 0-0.

90+2’ - Richarlison does well to win a freekick in the middle of the park with the clock ticking down slowly.

90’ - Digne with a shooting chance but loses it, out for a goalkick.
There will be four minutes added on.

89’ - Zaha switches to the right and wins a corner off Mina. Somewhat cleared.
Now Wickham and Zaha mill over the ball a couple of yards from the goal, and somehow Pickford gathers.

86’ - The Blues are actually keeping the ball in the Palace half, which is good. They will have to be careful of Palace on the break.
Zaha runs at Coleman who does well and Keane hoofs it clear.

82’ - The immediate pressure has been relieved, and Everton are able to pass the ball around relatively fluently.

76’ - Oh man, things just got worse. Schneiderlin slides in and Moss has no doubt that was a second booking. His first yellow card was a big mistake for the midfielder, and now Everton are really in for it with fifteen to go.
Silva throwing Tom Davies on right away. Sigurdsson pulled off, a frustrating day for him.

75’ - Zaha is on and has really sparked the Palace team. Now he finds van Aanholt whose teasing cross across the box beats Pickford, and Digne slides in to make a crucial clearance

68’ - Here comes Moise Kean!! It’s going to be DCL coming off for the youngster.
Speaking of subs, Gbamin has looked a little jumpy so far.

67’ - Richarlison with a snapshot from the edge of the box, and it curls just around the goal, did that shave the outside of the post?!

65’ - Zaha comes on to rousing cheers at Selhurst Park. No concerns there then about how the fans would be feeling about him handing in a transfer request. Question is, how motivated is he going to be going up against Everton?

64’ - Bernard finds the ball in space again, but is easily shrugged off the ball by Joel Ward. That there is why he should not be playing as the #10, would just get eaten alive.

61’ - The home side have their tails up with the crowd getting into it, and Wilfried Zaha is not warming up too.
Sigurdsson combines well with Richarlison, and then gets off a snapshot, right at Guaita though.

58’ - TWO BRILLIANT SAVES! Pickford has done amazingly well twice to keep the Blues in the game.
Ayew runs in behind the two centrehalves and has a clear look at goal, put the England #1 dashes out and cuts it off.
Coleman then is caught way upfield and Meyer is one on one of the left, just Pickford to beat and the goalie kicks it away. Phew.

55’ - Milivojevic was missing out on the yellow card party and now he’s in too, yanking back Sigurdsson.

52’ - Bernard hacks down Jordan Ayew as he looks to break, he gets a booking too.
Now Moss calls a foul on Schneiderlin again on Ayew, and the Frenchman is livid, and he’s pounding the ground with frustration! Moss calls him over and books him too now.

51’ - Oooh! A Sigurdsson flick from a Digne volleyed cross beats Guaita, but van Annholt clears off the line.

48’ - The wind is still swirling, and not necessarily in any one direction either. A Guaita goalkick almost ends up in the Everton box now.

46’ - The second half gets underway, no more changes for either side.

Halftime thoughts: The Blues have been quite dominant on the ball, and created a few half-chances. This looks very much like the last time the Toffees were in South London in a 0-0 draw (see below).

Premier League

48’ - Jon Moss has a couple of minutes added on, but it’s 0-0 at the break.

45’ - Gomes is down and looks quite unhappy. From the crunching tackle he’d been on the wrong end of a couple of minutes ago. Per Sky Sports its an ankle issue.
Jean-Philippe Gbamin is putting on the shirt, we’re going to have a debut!

41’ - Freekick given for a scrappy passage of play ends up in a Palace freekick in the centre circle, the hosts take it quick and suddenly Meyer is in space to the left. Coleman goes sliding in and gets a block, deflects it over for a corner.
High corner lofted into the box, and its a melee, goes for another corner. Same delivery again, real danger to Pickford’s goal, this time it’s a Palace head last on it and it goes out.

38’ - Meyer the first in the book, pulling down Richarlison who was looking to break quickly.

37’ - Just as the commentator points out that Sigurdsson has been missing since his early chance, he finds himself in space and has a shot, but it’s easily blocked.

35’ - Coleman has had a lot of joy against Patrick van Aanholt on the right. If it weren’t for the wind taking away some cross-field balls to him, he would have had even more touches.

30’ - CHANCE!! Great buildup from Everton ends up with a shot from Digne that is blocked, Richarlison leaves it for Coleman and his sidefooted is saved instinctively by Guaita! That was a really good save. The ball ends up back in the box and Calvert-Lewin’s header is wide.

28’ - Better from Andre Gomes there, hoofed clearance from the back finds Bernard in acres of space. The Brazilian cuts into the box, and with everyone waiting for him to shoot, he tries to feed Digne through and he had no idea that was coming.

26’ - Both Benteke and Meyer have had shots blocked, Everton are swarming in defence.

20’ - Good ball from Keane finds Coleman free down the right, low cross in cleared by Scott Dann for a corner. Low effort again, cleared away.

18’ - Coleman with some dogged dribbling gets some space for a cross into the box, it’s cleared, and then Digne sends in another one, also cleared.

15’ - Max Meyer with a good run behind the high defensive line, but Michael Keane cuts it out.

13’ - Everton have been dominating possession, close to 70% of it so far. Bernard presses and wins a corner for Sigurdsson to take.. the Icelander plays it on the ground to Richarlison who runs into it and shoots but it’s blocked well by Christian Benteke who didn’t lose his man.

7’ - Jordan Pickford is kicking into that gale in the first half. Look for the Blues to try play out the back in these conditions.

2’ - Ooh! Gylfi Sigurdsson scuffs a chance! Great cross from Lucas Digne finds him on the penalty spot, and he looked to have misjudged that. It is certainly very breezy at Selhurst Park today.

1’ - Here we go! We kick off another season of Everton football, here’s to the Blues! COYB!

Marco Silva looking very smart in a suit today.

Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images

Lineups: No real surprises there with the lineup, Marco Silva is sticking with the familiar today. Palace have clogged the middle with midfielders, so the Blues will have to move the ball fast to create space.

---

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 1

Date and start time: Saturday, August 10th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Selhurst Park, London, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 25,456

Weather: 69°F/21°C, partly cloudy, 0% chance of precipitation, 40 kmh winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: N/A - United States; N/A - United Kingdom; RMC Sport 1, Flow Sports PL, DAZN, beIN Sports HD 1, SuperSport 3 Africa

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio World

Live stream: NBC Sports Gold

Gamethread: Comments section below starting one hour before game time

Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford; Digne, Kean, Mina, Coleman; Schneiderlin, Gomes; Bernard, Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Lossl, Holgate, Gbamin, Davies, Walcott, Tosun, Kean

Crystal Palace

Starting XI: Guaita, Ward, Kelly, Dann, van Aanholt, Milivojevic, McArthur, Townsend, Meyer, Benteke, Ayew

Subs: Hennessey, Cahill, McCarthy, Kouyate, Camarasa, Zaha, Wickham

Last Meeting

Everton endured a frustrating afternoon in late April at Selhurst Park as a dogged defensive performance from the hosts and the Toffees’ inconsistent finishing meant a scoreless draw was the result.

One of the reasons why Everton chose to move on from Idrissa Gueye is that when playing teams who will put up a low block, he didn’t give the Blues an edge in the attacking half. While many of the new boys are not fully integrated into the squad yet, it’ll be interesting to see if Marco Silva’s tactics have changed at all against opponents like these, especially away from home.

---

Preview

Everton get their latest Premier League campaign underway today at Crystal Palace, looking to improve upon last season’s 8th place. An exciting summer transfer window has now closed, and while it might be too soon to say whether the Blues have improved as a side, there’s certainly quite a bit of excitement for the year ahead.

All the talk today will be about Everton’s pursuit of Wilfried Zaha with Palace holding firm in the end. The forward might or might not play having just returned from a holiday after the Africa Cup of Nations, but has been named to the squad for today.

For the Blues it’ll be interesting to see how many of the new boys are ready to play, and how well they fit into the side, COYB!