Crystal Palace’s unbeaten run came to an end against Everton on Sunday, in what was an overall poor performance from the Eagles.
A club record 19 game unbeaten run ended at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday, as Crystal Palace lost 2-1 against Everton owing to a late Jack Grealish goal.
It comes just after Crystal Palace’s opening win in the Conference League in midweek, comfortably beating Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 in Poland.
But Palace looked leggy at times in their game against Everton. Palace had the lead at half-time thanks to Daniel Munoz but looked particularly poor in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Oliver Glasner’s side briefly moved up into 2nd place of the Premier League table after taking the lead but now sit in 5th place.
Jean-Philippe Mateta of Crystal Palace shoots.
Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
Jean-Philippe Mateta was too wasteful in Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace
Jean-Philippe Mateta is a player who really symbolises Crystal Palace’s surge in the Premier League over the last few years, going from being a bit of a flop to one of the most prolific strikers in the league.
He’s earned praise from Palace fans and plenty of pundits have hailed Mateta’s Crystal Palace turnaround too. But against Everton, the Frenchman wasted too many chances and it ultimately came back to haunt Oliver Glasner’s side on Sunday afternoon.
In the same week that Mateta received his first call up for France, the 28-year-old missed two big chances against Everton, recording two total shots on target and one shot off target.
To make matters worse, he only completed five passes in the game with a pass success rate of just 42%.
Tbh falls to individual errors. Mateta should’ve scored twice, Sarr should’ve set up Pino, and Lacroix lost his mind with the foul.
We were still the superior side, played better, but we need to get better at taking our chances. #cpfc
— Henry Swain (@henryswainjourn) October 5, 2025
View Tweet
Why Jean-Philippe Mateta might be worried at Crystal Palace
In the 2023/24 Premier League season, Mateta scored 16, followed up with 14 in the last campaign. So far in seven Premier League games this season he has two goals.
He’s been good overall but his performance against Everton was costly and somewhat reminiscent of the Mateta of old. But no matter how in form he might be, on the whole, he needs to watch out for Eddie Nketiah.
Before the Everton game, Nketiah had scored off the bench in his previous two games against Liverpool and then Dynamo.
And ahead of the game against Everton, Mateta said he welcomes the competition from Nketiah and so he knows he has to be at his best, or risk losing his spot to Nketiah.
But it’s just one defeat for Palace and one bad game for Mateta. The break comes at a good time and expect Crystal Palace to be back at their best very soon.