For 45 minutes this was looking like one of the easiest games of football Crystal Palace[1] would play all season.
1-0 up through Daniel Munoz, Everton[2] offering nothing in attack with an Expected Goals of 0.04 and both Tyler Dibling and Thierno Barry were hooked at half-time by an unimpressed David Moyes.
Would Palace ever lose again? That was the running joke on the way to the ground for many. Here they showed they are human after all.
This has always been a nightmare trip for Palace, whether at Goodison Park or now here at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Palace are now winless in their last 11 Premier League away games at Everton (D4 L7). Not since the days of Neil Warnock in September 2014 when they won 3-2 have they left the blue side of Merseyside with a win.
This was as much about Palace shooting themselves in the foot as it was Everton having something of a Freaky Friday moment at half-time. In the second 45 they were unrecognisable.
Jack Grealish scored his first Premier League goal for Everton to stun Crystal Palace late on
Iliman Ndiaye converted a penalty to get them back in the game and his role was crucial
Jack Grealish, his first goal since scoring against Leicester in April, was the hero but it was Iliman Ndiaye who dragged Everton back into this, not least through his equalising penalty but also with his doggedness in and out of possession.
This is the kind of performance that must become a benchmark for Everton if they are to trouble the top half of the table this season.
They have problems, not least up top, but they’ve done what their bitter rivals Liverpool couldn’t do and that’s beat this well-oiled Palace machine which saw many filtering out with an enormous smile on their face.
GREALISH HAS HIS LICK BACK
There is something to be said for a player rediscovering their love for football in real time and that’s what it feels like with Grealish.
Not just scoring the match-winning goal but everything about Everton for Grealish makes sense.
He turned up here with a big smile on his face and spoke to broadcasters beforehand about how he already feels at home since joining on loan from Manchester City.
By the end he was smiling for the medlam he caused in the stands for all the right reasons with his 93rd minute winner.
Only Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo have more goal contributions (9) than Jack Grealish (5) this season in the Premier League. Not bad company to keep.
‘It’s so nice to score here,’ Grealish said after.
‘Do you know what’s mad? The last games we’ve played here we’ve been drawing and I keep saying to myself in the 85th minute, “Come on Jack, go and score. Imagine if you scored now”.
Grealish challenged himself to score more goals and he is finally off the mark at Everton
‘I did it against Villa, I did it against West Ham and I didn’t score, so today I actually said the same thing again and I scored and I ran to where my mum and dad were, so it was nice. That goal goes to all the Evertonians for making me feel so welcome here.’
Grealish needs a striker to play off and that was taken away from him through the dire display of Thierno Barry – more on him later – but Beto gave Grealish a focal point to work with and it paid off. A small tweak by David Moyes but a match-winning one.
Now the challenge is how many can Grealish score and how many can he help with assists?
He went into this game having created more chances than any other player in the Premier League this season.
‘That’s what you want to do as a winger, I have one goal and four assists that’s what I want to do,’ he said.
Lift off for Grealish in an Everton shirt then. The challenge now is to keep that smile on his face for as long as possible. Do that and Everton will be quite alright.
IS PICKFORD UNDERRATED?
Given Jordan Pickford is England No 1 it seems a bit fanciful to think he’s underrated.
But here he was making his 300th Premier League appearance and making top quality crucial saves to keep Everton in a game they were only really in from once the second half began.
Pickford made two quick fire saves in the opening two minutes and was doing his level best to keep a disjointed Everton close enough in the game to stage a comeback, even when Munoz broke the deadlock.
Without Pickford’s heroics, not least keeping out a point-blank effort from inside the six-yard box from Marc Guehi in the early Palace onslaught, this would have been a game Everton had no hope of coming back in.
Palace fans goaded him with chants of ‘England’s No 1’ towards his opposite number Dean Henderson but it was Pickford who had the last laugh.
It still got me thinking as to where he ranks in the Premier League because when the league’s top goalkeepers get discussed it is always the likes of Alisson Becker and David Raya that get brought up.
Pickford is as good as any goalkeeper in this league and here was the latest example as to why.
Jordan Pickford was immense in goal for Everton and kept them in the game in a poor first half
MAGIC MUNOZ
Looking back, the January 2024 transfer window completely transformed the capability of what Crystal Palace could go on to achieve.
With two signatures they moved the needle while their rivals will have barely raised eyebrows at the time.
In came Adam Wharton from Blackburn Rovers for £22million and Daniel Munoz from Genk for around £6.8m.
Wharton was on many radars for some time but Munoz, as talented as he was in Belgium, was not headline-grabbing news then. Now he is a case study across the league as to the demands for better scouting.
His deadlock-breaking goal here means he has been involved in 12 goals in all competitions in 2025 (six goals, six assists), the most of any Premier League defender.
The bigger question is, is he the best right back or wing back in the league? For me he is.
Munoz is underrated technically and is a willing runner all day long.
Liverpool are finding out right now how much weaker a side becomes with poor wide play and Munoz is as critical to this Palace unbeaten run as any of his team-mates.
Daniel Munoz is continuing to prove an absolute bargain Palace, who signed him for £6.8m
Munoz has been involved in 12 goals in all competitions in 2025 (six goals, six assists), the most of any Premier League defender
Pace, power, goals and assists. Four of the most desired attributes and four that will equal wins when all is said and done.
‘I am certain his ability, athleticism and tenacity will be a huge boost to the squad for the remainder of the season, and beyond,’ Palace chairman Steve Parish said when Munoz signed.
Pound for pound one of the smartest signings of any Premier League club in the past 18 months.
RELIABLE STRIKER CAN TAKE EVERTON TO NEW HEIGHTS
In the one moment in the first half when Thierno Barry could see vast amount of grass in front of him to run into there was a roar from the home crowd.
The £27million summer signing from Villarreal has struggled badly to date and was struggling here when the big moment arrived.
Only he was easily caught and easily brushed off the ball. Chance gone. That roar was replaced by not-so-subtle groans and jeers.
Barry is only 22 and he is being given plenty of opportunity to feel his way into a Premier League[3] side.
But patience cannot last forever and it didn’t here for David Moyes[4] given he hooked his misfiring forward at half-time with the whole team mustering a disastrous 0.04 xG (Expected Goals) in the first half.
Make it 205 minutes and counting without a goal for Everton’s big money signing then.
Beto came on as his replacement, another forward that leaves Everton fans tearing their hair out with his decision making and poor execution.
Here he did make a decisive contribution, winning the late header that fell straight to Grealish to score late on.
The two strikers combine for a fee of £53m and both have numerous flaws to their game.
Adding Grealish on loan and keeping Ndiaye is a start for Everton but failure to find competent centre forward play to this team will always hurt Everton’s hopes of troubling the league’s elite.
Thierno Barry struggled leading the line and things only improved once he was taken off
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS ON… BUT FOREST DROP-OFF IS A WARNING
Yes, yes, yes it’s early.
But a top five finish and Champions League football is absolutely possible for this Crystal Palace team, even in spite of this collapse.
Liverpool are a side that are out of sorts, Chelsea are an unknown entity week to week, Tottenham Hotspur under Thomas Frank blow hot and cold, while Newcastle United and Aston Villa have more holes to cover up than Oliver Glasner does for Palace.
Palace were so well drilled out of possession in their 5-2-2-1 shape and it allowed them to contain Everton before breaking with pace and with numbers for the first hour of this contest. That formula will win plenty of football matches.
There was enough on display here to suggest bad days like this one will be few and far between.
Oliver Glasner can take this Crystal Palace team into the Champions League but be warned
But let Nottingham Forest serve as a warning.
After breaking into the top four in matchday 16 last season they never dropped out of it until matchday 34, even flirting with second place for two weeks during that spell.
Forest ran out of legs and ideas and what was a stunning season ended up finishing in a bit of a whimper.
Palace have the tactics, the talent and the manager to do it… but it’s a long run to the finish and they need to be braced for it.
References
- ^ Crystal Palace (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Everton (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Premier League (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ David Moyes (www.dailymail.co.uk)