Analysis from Hill Dickinson Stadium after Everton enjoyed a winning start to the new Premier League season
Thierno Barry of Everton celebrates scoring his team’s second goal (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Thierno Barry of Everton celebrates scoring his team’s second goal (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
View Image
The Advent Calendars were already out when Thierno Barry finally broke his scoring duck in the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest some 17 matches into his Everton career so there was relief all around as the French striker got up and running at the first time of asking this time around.
Facing that same South Stand where he opened his account last December, the smiles from player and supporters alike were just as wide but rather than a winter warmer this was – ahead of a showing of Grease at a drive-through cinema at Hill Dickinson Stadium next weekend – a case of summer loving.
Barry’s slow start in the Premier League last season mirrored the pathway he had followed at Basel, where he had laboured for several months before ultimately enjoying a prolific record, but his first year on Merseyside proved to be something of a rollercoaster ride both on and off the pitch.
While he enjoyed a mid-term purple patch, including his delicate finish that proved to be the match-winner at Aston Villa, other than his brace off the bench against Manchester City, spring proved much tougher, including the fallout over what happened in the stands at the Emirates Stadium.
But while Barry might have been naive in his reaction to that event, he cannot be compared to compatriot Neal Maupay in that respect and deserves to let his football do the talking. When it comes to that, he took his goal against Crystal Palace like a classic Everton centre-forward.
There had been a big chance in the first half that Barry got caught under his feet, but he kept his focus here when Iliman Ndiaye’s cross hung in the air and despatched his header with authority to seal the game and restore the grins on the faces of those supporters who have backed him from the start and willed him on so much during his early struggles.
Wide boys
Jack Grealish has been – and remains - a supremely gifted footballer, but do Everton actually need to bring him back if it is to the detriment of playing time to some of this squad’s younger wingers?
We all know what the first £100million English player brings to the table (having made his big move to Manchester City back in 2021, long before such fees became commonplace this summer), in terms of his football intelligence, ability to play the game at his pace and carry the ball up the pitch, drawing clever fouls.
That hasn’t changed and the man who netted the first ever stoppage-time winner at Hill Dickinson Stadium in this corresponding fixture last season is also now fit-again after battling back from the stress fracture in his toe that curtailed his loan spell last January. However, in his absence, the Blues have now turned the loan move for Tyrique George, the Chelsea prospect first brought in as his replacement into a permanent switch.
George is another Everton player who has enjoyed an encouraging pre-season, which was capped by a first goal for the club in the 3-1 win over Premier League rivals Newcastle United at Murrayfield. Here, the 20-year-old did everything but score and was voted man-of-the-match by Everton supporters within the stadium.
Blues like what they have seen from the Londoner and he certainly seems to have stepped up a gear from what we saw previously. While the player has still got his best years ahead of him, does David Moyes really want to risk stifling that development by spending big money – and even another loan would represent that – and putting Grealish in front of him?
On the opposite flank, Ndiaye, who appeared to run out of steam during the run-in last term, appears back to his best and was in irresistible form against the Eagles. His dribbling left the visitors chasing shadows for most of the afternoon and with Brennan Johnson plus Tyler Dibling also on the bench, at the moment there appears to something of a nice balance.
Tale of two keepers
Dean Henderson, along with the rest of his Crystal Palace team-mates, has been riding a crest of a wave over the past couple of seasons, and good on them, but we saw here why Jordan Pickford is very much still the best goalkeeper in the country, a position he has reigned supreme in since making his international debut almost nine years ago.
“Champions of Europe, we know what we are,” proclaimed the travelling Eagles fans in reference to the UEFA Conference League triumph in May that followed up their FA Cup finals success the previous year. Then old foes were referenced with a chant of: “We’re having a party, we’re having a ball, Brighton and Millwall have won f**k all.”
If those from the capital tried any renditions of “England’s number one,” though, it certainly wasn’t with enough conviction to be heard in the Press Box on the top row of the West Stand. Henderson did well to deny Ndiaye a couple of times, but when it came to that pivotal match-changing moment of pure class though, Pickford showed he’s still the master.
A bit like this corresponding fixture last season when Palace should have been out of sight before Everton fought back to win, the balance turned here when a pinpoint pass from Adam Wharton picked out Eddie Nketiah, only for Pickford to tip his shot onto the post. The home supporters acknowledged it, knowing that their goalie had dug them out again.
That’s why the 32-year-old has played more World Cup matches than any other Three Lions player in history with Henderson continuing to fluff his lines when stepping up as understudy, like shipping four goals against France, even when Thomas Tuchel’s side triumphed in the third-place play-off.
All change in the engine room
For most of last season it was ‘Garner and Gana’ in the centre of the park for the Blues but here we witnessed a new combination. Senegal’s most-capped player who served Everton for seven seasons over two spells has now gone.
While the reigning Player of the Season who missed just six minutes of football last term at the end of the trip to Chelsea when being protected from a potential suspension, gave Everton a pre-match boost here by returning to the matchday squad after recovering from his recent operation, he was restricted to a late cameo off the bench.
So, in their place, a new combination came to the fore, to take their opportunity before James Garner returns to full fitness and summer signing from Arsenal, Christian Norgaard, is also up to speed.
Hayden Hackney was the Championship’s Player of the Season with Middlesbrough in 2025/26, and is now looking to follow the likes of Tim Cahill, Joleon Lescott and Jarrod Bowen who have stepped up to become Premier League stars under Moyes’ guidance.
Teenager Harrison Armstrong is another prospect to have learned his trade in the second tier with loan spells at Derby County and then Preston North End and while he has never looked out of place at the highest level, his display here suggested that despite his tender years, he is now very much Premier League ready.