Match Preview

The season starts here.  It's already a cliché, but with last week's season opener confirming expectations of a horrible mis-match of quality, Everton will come away from Selhurst Park this weekend with a much clearer idea of how they will fare this season.

Newly-promoted Crystal Palace would, under more normal circumstances, represent the opportunity for three points but the Blues take their fragile confidence to the Capital looking for their first away win since December.  Victory would provide an enormous shot in the arm; defeat, while not the end of the world in only the second game of the season, would still be a very tough pill to swallow.

Moyes has selection issues throughout the line-up.  Nigel Martyn was uncharacteristically shaky against Arsenal and it wouldn't be surprising to Richard Wright take his place on Saturday.

In central defence, both Alan Stubbs and Joseph Yobo are struggling to be fit with groin and knee complaints respectively which has David Weir, who didn't take part in the midweek Reserves fixture, on standby.  Alessandro Pistone can also deputize as he did in the second half last week with Gary Naysmith and Tony Hibbert as full-backs.

In midfield, Thomas Gravesen will no doubt be first choice but his dreadfully erratic display against the Gunners doesn't bode well for the season.  Alongside him, Lee Carsley's only notable moment was his involvement in the Blues' sublime consolation goal.  Preferably, Osman would move into the centre alongside the Dane and Steve Watson would play wide right.

Up front, Kevin Campbell's lead-footed display and Duncan Ferguson's ineffective substitute's appearance last week merely emphasizes further their age and slowness.  Marcus Bent was a revelation by comparison as a second-half sub last Sunday and he will partner James McFadden if there is any justice.

Crystal Palace have the option of handing a debut to their new £2M signing, Ecuadorian striker Ivan Kaviedes, but will be without Michael Hughes, Neil Shipperley and Danny Butterfield.

As with last week, much will depend on Everton's attitude. Last weekend against the Champions, they didn't really come out and play until they were 3-0 down.  The key will be in imposing themselves on the game and scoring early on, and then having the discipline and concentration to either kill the game off or keep hold of the advantage.

Lyndon Lloyd

Matchday Stats

This will be the 36th meeting between Everton and Crystal Palace in all competitions, and the 18th at Selhurst Park.  This match will be the 7th meeting in the Premier League, and the 4th at Selhurst Park.

Everton's full record against Crystal Palace is:

Our record at Selhurst Park against 'The Eagles' is:

The last match between the sides was on 12 September 2001 at Goodison Park in the 2nd round of the League Cup.  The match ended all-square at 1-1 with Palace securing their passage into the next round by winning the resulting penalty shoot-out 5-4.  Duncan Ferguson was Everton's scorer on the night.  The last league encounter between the sides, and the last time the teams met at Selhurst Park, was on 10 January 1998, when Everton ran out 3-1 winners with the goals coming from Nick Barmby, Duncan Ferguson and Mikael Madar.

The last Everton hat-trick against Palace was on 20 September 1980 by Bob Latchford in a 5-0 victory at Goodison Park.  The only other Everton hat-trick was by Bill 'Dixie' Dean, who actually scored 4 goals, in Everton's record victory of 6-0 in a 4th Round FA Cup tie on 24 January 1931, at Selhurst Park.

Everton's biggest victory against Crystal Palace was the 6-0 victory mentioned above, with Tommy Johnson and a Crystal Palace own goal adding to Dean's haul of 4 strikes.  Crystal Palace's biggest victory was also 6-0 and was also in the F.A. Cup, although this was a 1st round encounter at Goodison Park.  Crystal Palace's biggest victory over Everton at home is 2-0 on 4 April 1992 and 1 May 1971.

The most common victory for Everton against Palace is 3-1 which has happened on 4 occasions out of the 14 victories in total.  Palace's most common victory over Everton is shared between 2-0 and 2-1, both of which have occurred three times each in Palace's 10 victories.  The most common draw between the sides is 0-0 and 1-1, both of which have happened 4 times in the 11 draws so far in the series.

Everton's record for 21 August is:

This is the first time that the sides have met on this day.  Everton have had a habit of scoring quite a few goals on 21 August with 2 five goal hauls and 3 four goal hauls out of the 8 matches they've played on this day.

Frank Wignall was born on this day in 1939 in Blackrod.  Signed from Horwich RMI in May 1958, Frank went on to make 38 appearances for Everton whilst scoring 22 goals.  Frank was eventually sold to Nottingham Forest.

Thomas Gravesen appeared for Denmark in their 1-0 friendly victory over Scotland on this day in 2002 with Gary Naysmith and David Weir turning out for the Scots.  Also, on the same day, Idan Tal scored one of Israel's 4 goals in their 4-2 victory over Lithuania, whilst Lee Carsley appeared in Ireland's 3-0 victory over Finland.  Niclas Alexandersson and Tobias Linderoth appeared on the same day for Sweden in their 1-1 draw with Russia, whilst Mark Pembridge made it 8 Everton international appearances on the same day when he turned out for Wales against Croatia, with the game also ending 1-1.

Milestone's that can be reached in this game:

• If Duncan Ferguson starts the match, it will be his 150th start for Everton in the league.
• If Everton are defeated then they will have the unenviable distinction of matching the club record of 6 consecutive league defeats, which has happened on 7 separate occasions, the last being the six matches between 26 December 1996 and 29 January 1997.  A run which, no doubt, was one of the factors that led to Joe Royle's vacation of the Everton managerial position two month's later.

Steve Flanagan

Magnificent Gravesen Provides tonic for Blues

To enormous relief all round, Everton registered a hugely needed win this afternoon at Selhurst Park; on the evidence of this performance, it is Tommy Gravesen, just as much as Wayne Rooney, who the Blues should be desperate to tie up on a big-money long-term deal.

It is a long, long time since I had been to Selhurst — the match programme reminds me that the clinching third goal for Everton last time we played there was scored by the late unlamented Miguel Madar!!!!! — but, other than a great new stand behind the goal (where I remember years ago standing with no cover whatever from the elements) the stadium still looks old and scruffy.

The Everton side has an old, scruffy look too, with SuperKev again being preferred to Dunc up front, and Bent making a first start.  The line up that started the match saw Everton, in their first match of the season away from Goodison, equal last season’s entire total of victories on the road.

Not that the Blues had it all their own way, as the huge travelling contingent had to watch yet another soft goal being conceded after as little as 10 minutes.  Naysmith, who had a poor game all afternoon, was turned inside out, a regulation cross came in, and there was some giant of a centre-half, unaccountably unmarked in the area Tony Hibbert should have been covering, to register an almost embarrassingly easy finish.  This after Everton spent the first ten minutes looking very comfortable, with Kilbane missing a clear chance from a free header within the first 90 seconds.

Not surprisingly the confidence visibly leaked from the Blues when the goal went in and a few minutes later it was nearly two when a calamitous attempt to play offside by the Everton back four, notably Stubbs, led to Johnson, the Palace danger man, running on to a through ball for a one on one.  He skipped round Martyn like a seasoned Premiership player, only for Stubbs to redeem himself with a stretching last-gasp goal-line clearance.

At this stage, I was fearing the worst and it was a good job we were handed a lifeline in the most comical of circumstances.  The Palace keeper, a newly signed Argentine long-haired midget rejoicing in the unlikely mane of Julian Speroni, played a terrible pass to a defender, was given the ball back under pressure from Campbell, tried to go the long way round the lumbering NotSoSuper, lost the ball, and was left with little option but to bring down the Everton No 9.  Up stepped Tommy and belted it in to the keepers left.  One — one, and relief and hope in equal measure surged through players and supporters alike.

The rest of the half was fairly unmemorable, with Palace only once going close after a corner was misjudged by Martyn and was hooked inches over by a palace man.  Everton, generally, looked good in possession — particularly down the left where Kilbane was always available and looking dangerous, running directly at a nervous looking Palace rearguard.  Osman showed some nice touches while in the middle, Gravesen was dominant and Carsley was tenacious in the tackle — today, the two baldies complemented each other quite well.

Going back though, we were woeful.  Stubbs, looking increasingly ponderous, was often isolated against the splendid Johnson; Yobo held everything together, just, while at full back……… well, can somebody please tell me what became of the promising player Tony Hibbert used to be?  Surely he has been replaced by some lookalike impostor who on this evidence cannot pass a football and is in fact barely able to run — his lack of pace was often exploited, to a quite embarrassing degree.

Anyway, we reached the half time break on level terms.  I was fully expecting some changes at half-time as, although we had been on top, there were some weary legs out there.  However, we started with the same 11, only for Campbell to succumb early in the half to a knee injury; Big Dunc replaced him.

Everton were a stronger team in the second half.  We were defending as a unit so that Stubbs was less isolated.  Going forward, Osman came in to his own more and showed some good touches.  Up front, Bent was starting to look a real threat.  I have seen a lot of Bent at Ipswich, and I rate him as a good signing.  He has a great touch for a big man, makes good, strong runs, has pace, runs at players, holds the ball up well, and scores goals.  OK so he will never interest the top teams or catch the roving eye of Sven Goran Eriksson, but he can more than do a job for a side like Everton and has to be a good replacement for the willing but profligate Radzinski.

Our second goal was, simply, brilliant.  Good, composed work at the back saw Yobo work space and find Hibbert, whose punt forward was met by Dunc.  The ball bobbled about with everyone just watching it until Tommy decided enough was enough and simply took control of the situation.  A feint, a shimmy, and a beautiful right foot curler into the top corner – get in there!!!!  A well-deserved lead for the Blues, and the delighted reaction of the players suggested, to me, a really good mood in the camp.

Of course, being Everton, we had to make things a bit harder for ourselves.  This time it was Naysmith’s turn to be an idiot.  Rightly cautioned in the first half for going straight through someone, for a reason best known to himself, he petulantly pulled back a player who had left him for dead, miles from any danger half-way inside the Palace half, and was given his marching orders, with the resulting reshuffle seeing Pistone replacing Osman.

As so often, the ten men were the better team and I think we dominated with ten men in a way we never had with 11. We had our reward in a well-deserved first goal for Marcus Bent, who, finding himself one-on-one with the keeper after a defence-splitter by – who else – Tommy Grav, simply scored, in a way that would have been totally beyond the Rad.

Watching the time run down was desperately nerve-wracking but in truth we never looked like conceding, and the friend who had got me a ticket, a Palace fan, was pretty glum by the end — other than a diving headed attempt that Johnson missed by an eyebrow, the Eagles barely took flight in the second half.  Indeed the high-tempo onslaught that we had expected never really materialised, and any problems we had were of our own making.

In today’s football world, where consecutive victories see you installed as ‘the team of the moment’, and consecutive defeats see you as ‘relegation candidates’ and your manager as ‘beleaguered’, there is a temptation to say this result shows that Everton are back, the Moyes revolution is back on track, and so forth.  In truth, we are two games in to the season and it will be a long time before we can judge how the year will pan out.  The biggest effect of this win, however, may be on that crucial thing called confidence.  We’ve laid the bogey of the first away win, scored a few goals, and defeated a team widely seen as a rival for a bottom three place.

A win is a win, and always welcome.  But some are more welcome than others; and this was one of them.

Come on you Blues.

Julian Cashen