Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - Good win, scrappy at times and downright fortunate at others, but we’ll take the three points!

Premier League

90+3’ - Palace’s resistance is broken as the Blues are rampant now. Sidibe sets up Schneiderlin for a shot from outside the box, but it’s blocked.. and there’s the final whistle.

90’ - Two corners in a row and again Everton threaten but can’t get the final touch.
Now a neat passing move between Digne and Davies finds Richarlison, his shot from outside the box is saved well but falls straight to DCL, and with the goal beckoning he mishits it way over. Oof.

88’ - Digne wins a corner, swings it in, Richarlison with a fadeaway jumper header that hits the bar, and DCL is right there to smash home the rebound! 3-1 now.. and dare we say ‘game over’.. though after that Newcastle game who knows anymore.

86’ - Holgate is coming on now, replacing Sigurdsson - he’s had a decent game today the Icelander, his 100th appearance for the Blues. The youngster will play in the middle alongside Schneiderlin.

82’ - Meanwhile Palace attack down the right, and a horrendous clearance from Michael Keane goes right back to the opposition who win a corner, that is cleared. Yikes, it’s been very, very hairy at times today.
Palace get another ball into the box with Digne mismatched against Red Scott Dann, but Benteke’s shot is scuffed wide.

81’ - Richarlison with a great defensive effort to win the ball and then takes it into the corner, he tries to win a corner as he fires it off Max Meyer, but the referee blows for a goalkick to his utter chagrin.

76’ - Everton looking like they’re in a 4-4-1-1, with Richarlison going out wide on the left and Davies slotting in behind DCL. Probably best he stays as far up the pitch as possible, and then on cue gives the ball away in his own half.
Moise Kean meanwhile getting ready to come on.

72’ - Davies intercepts a poorly-weighted pass and plays DCL through, he goes to shoot but it’s blocked well.

70’ - Palace are pressing Everton high and Coleman gives the ball away with a misplaced pass to Mina, and the Blues are lucky not to pay for it.

63’ - Richarlison fouled down the right, Sigurdsson’s freekick into the box is cleared at the second attempt.
OH! Richarlison finds Sigurdsson who makes a stumbling, weaving run through the Palace and defence, but is unable to beat Guaita with his toe poke, that would have been a goal for the ages for him.

Tom Davies is on now, Bernard going off. Digne’s corner is low and cleared.

61’ - Pickford goes a long way to making up for his error with an amazing point-blank save on Benteke again! It’s all happening in the second half here.

59’ - Blues break, DCL finds Richarlison through on goal and WHAT A FINISH from the Brazilian, curls it into the far post!!

56’ - The goal was certainly coming - Everton yet to show up for the second half, and walking around half-asleep since the resumption. Meanwhile Palace are now dominating the game winning two consecutive corners.
The Blues are shambolic in the back, and Palace hit the bar from a goalmouth melee following the corner. The entire stadium is FURIOUS right now as Everton are completely at sixes and sevens in the back and in the middle.

51’ - Oh Jordan Jordan Jordan. What an absolute howler, and he allows Benteke to get his first goal in two centuries. The striker won the ball in the middle, and ran out wide.. his shot was straight at the goalie but Pickford completely misplayed that and allows it to squirm under him. The Pickford fume will come right back again.

49’ - Everton again failing to win the second ball creating a half-chance for the visitors. Good cross into the box is mishit by Zaha, and as it bounces up invitingly Mina completely whiffs on his scissor-kick clearance, but Pickford is quick to come out and punch it away.

48’ - Commentators full of useful info today - the wind is now in Everton’s favour in the second half, and with the sun gone it’s not a worry for Pickford.

46’ - Everton get us underway in the second half, Coleman taking down Zaha.
Palace have the fewest goals of any side in the Premier League, and have scored two or more in the second half only twice this season, both times coming from behind against West Ham United. Hmm.

Halftime Thoughts - Not the best half of football from the Blues, still too many missed passes and balls given away, but when it’s come together it’s looked pretty good.

Premier League

45’ - There’s the halftime whistle, no further incident.

43’ - Flighted ball into the Everton box and Zaha goes down as Pickford comes out to collect, and then the goalie fumbles it and Zaha goes down again as the defenders surround him, and again referee Coote waves away the Eagles’ appeals. No penalty, clearly.
Cahill meanwhile takes out DCL and the Blues win a freekick, and the Palace players protest, no idea why they should be.

39’ - Sidibe with two consecutive giveaways but the Blues aren’t punished. The first was a poor pass right to a Palace player, and then he got caught in possession and was tackled from a player he didn’t see behind him.

37’ - Interesting snippet from the commentators here - Zaha at 27 is the youngest player in the Palace XI, with the oldest manager in the Premier League in Roy Hodgson as well.

34’ - The Blues hold the ball deep in the Palace half for a few minutes with a series of throw-ins, but again failing to find the key pass.

30’ - Everton are doing well passing the ball around but haven’t been able to get through, with both DCL and Richarlison coming close to defence-splitting passes.

26’ - Another good cross into the box from the right and Bernard is about to be Johnny-on-the-spot again, but is unselfish and his chipped cross is just an inch away from the diving DCL’s head.

23’ - Walcott looked to have picked up a knock on his left knee and got some treatment, but cannot continue and will be replaced by Djibril Sidibe. A goal and an assist in his last two games, Walcott looking in decent form in recent games
The fullback is about to come one and then realizes he has a sock malfunction and has to go back to the dressing room while the Blues play a couple of minutes a man down.

18’ - GOAL! Bernard slams home and the Blues lead!
Beautiful passing move between Morgan Schneiderlin, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Theo Walcott, with Walcott’s spin move getting him free and his brilliant cross sidefooted home with power and control by Bernard arriving late in the box.

13’ - Benteke wins a corner off Keane, and it’s not quite cleared, resulting in a deflected shot for Patrick van Aanholt that goes off Jordan Pickford’s near post. Keane clears for another corner, which is cleared well by Richarlison.

10’ - Who had James McCarthy for first booking? Goes sliding in recklessly on Digne, studs up, and hacks him down - referee David Coote has no doubts.
Great freekick into the box and Yerry Mina gets his head to it but no direction.

3’ - With the early kickoff, Palace are playing into the sun in the first half. Gary Cahill gets caught in possession and concedes a freekick about thirty yards out. Lucas Digne measures a low shot that bounces just in front of Vicente Guaita and he parries it away.

1’ - The visitors get us underway.

The Everton shirts say ‘Everton in the Community’ on the front today to commemorate the organization’s 32nd birthday.

Lineups - Ancelotti chooses to (somewhat surprisingly) make four changes for this game. In defence Mason Holgate rests and Michael Keane returns to face the aerial threat of Christian Benteke while Seamus Coleman will be charged with keeping Zaha quiet. Morgan Schneiderlin replaces the suspended Delph and Bernard returns on the left for Alex Iwobi.

Preview

The staggered winter break starts this weekend for the Premier League, with Everton in action in the Saturday early game at home to Crystal Palace. The Blues bounced back from a disappointing late showing at home against Newcastle a fortnight ago to stage their own smash-and-grab at Watford FC last weekend to snatch all three points at the death.

Now they face a resolute Crystal Palace side that continues to perform in the same mould that Roy Hodgson has them playing at for the last few years. The Toffees opened this season with a stalemate 0-0 draw in London - in fact, of the last ten times the two times have met six games have ended in a draw with the Blues winning the other four.

Everton’s injury woes are starting to abate, but they will be without Andre Gomes who is still a fortnight away from a return while Fabian Delph is suspended after getting himself foolishly sent off at the Hornets last weekend.

With the Premier League table as congested as it is, Carlo Ancelotti will look to keep collecting points where he can get them, especially with tougher tests coming up in March that will actually determine whether Everton will be in the conversation for European qualification come the end of the season.

Crystal Palace go as Wilfried Zaha goes and with 22 goals have the lowest goals scored of any team in the League. Jordan Ayew has blown hot and cold this season while on-loan Cenk Tosun marked his debut with a goal against Manchester City, but is now out injured. The Eagles were doing relatively well until two straight defeats to Southampton and Sheffield United put the brakes on a five-match unbeaten run.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 26

Date and start time: Saturday, February 8th at 4:30 a.m. PT / 7:30 a.m ET / 12:30 p.m. BST

Stadium: Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 39,572

Weather: 49°F/9°C, partly cloudy, 4% chance of precipitation, 17 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: NBCSN, Telemundo - United States; BT Sport Ultimate, BT Sport 1 - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 2, beIN Sports HD 11, SuperSport 3 Africa, RMC Sport 1, Sport TV2

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio World, SiriusXM FC

Live stream: NBC Sports App,

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI: Pickford, Coleman, Keane, Mina, Digne, Walcott, Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Bernard, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Stekelenburg, Holgate, Sidibe, Baines, Davies, Iwobi, Kean

Crystal Palace

Starting XI: Guaita, Ward, Tomkins, Cahill, van Aanholt, McArthur, McCarthy, Milivojevic, Ayew, Zaha, Benteke

Subs: Hennessey, Dann, Meyer, Kouyate, Townsend, Mitchell, Riedewald

Last Meeting

The Blues drew 0-0 away at the Eagles to start off the season, matching the same scoreline the last time they were in London last season too. In this fixture last season at Goodison though, goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Cenk Tosun gave the Blues a 2-0 win. Seamus Coleman had conceded a soft penalty early on with Zaha going down easily in the box, but Jordan Pickford kept out Luka Milivojevic’s effort and the game stayed tied until DCL’s header with three minutes to go edged Everton ahead and Tosun put on the finishing touches a couple of minutes later.