Harrison Armstrong picked the biggest stage of his young career to stake his claim for a regular start.
Everton’s opening-weekend win over Crystal Palace was, after some fraught first-half moments, built upon them controlling the central areas of the pitch.
Amidst it all, the 19-year-old midfielder was the one pulling the strings. David Moyes trusted him alongside new signing Hayden Hackney in the centre of midfield, a pairing that had barely been considered before kick-off but which looked increasingly the part as the game wore on.
The pass that set the tone…
Armstrong won the ball back high up the pitch, an area of the game he’s quietly excelled in since coming through the academy, and slid a pass inside for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to finish.
Forty-two minutes on the clock, and Everton then had the platform to see out a first opening-weekend win in five years. Thierno Barry doubled the lead just after the break.
For the rest of the afternoon, Armstrong kept doing the ugly stuff and doing it well. Screening the back four. Recycling possession under pressure. Never once looking like the youngest player on the pitch.
An 8.1 FotMob rating and an assist was a tidy return. The more telling number is 90 — as in minutes played. Moyes hasn’t always trusted Armstrong with a full match, shuffling him between central and wide roles, but this was different.
Not a cameo, not on the fringes. Part of a central midfield partnership that helped Everton win the game.
Why his midfield place is far from guaranteed…
Everton have just spent money on Hackney and Christian Norgaard. Jimmy Garner is also coming back to fitness. And further up the pitch, no-one’s displacing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Iliman Ndiaye.
Armstrong’s temporary route back into the side last January only opened up because of a heavy home defeat to Brentford and Gueye’s absence at the Africa Cup of Nations. He did okay — his best game of that run came in the win at Aston Villa — though there were also afternoons, against Leeds especially, where the step up looked a bit much.
But there was none of that against Palace.
West Derby-born, five years old when he joined the academy, loan spells at Derby County and then Preston North End along the way — this is a player who did his apprenticeship in senior football away from the Hill Dickinson.
Preston’s coaching staff praised him for the parts of his game that don’t always catch the eye: game intelligence, maturity under pressure, work rate, etc.
Now the secret is out.
Squad depth in that area of the pitch is one of the plusses of this squad, and rotation across a long season is inevitable.
But if Armstrong plays as he did yesterday, the conversation stops being about whether he deserves a place.
It becomes about who will make way for him.
David Moyes says Thierno Barry has ‘point to prove’ after Palace win
David Moyes says Thierno Barry has ‘point to prove’ after Palace win
Everton 2026 summer transfer tracker: Every deal, live
Everton 2026 summer transfer tracker: Every deal, live