Just five points separate Premier League strugglers Everton and Crystal Palace ahead of their meeting on Monday. Can either side boost their survival hopes? We look ahead to the game with our Everton vs Crystal Palace prediction and preview.
Everton vs Crystal Palace Stats: The Quick Hits
- The Opta supercomputer gives Everton the edge ahead of Monday’s six-pointer at Goodison Park, giving the Toffees a 38.4% chance of beating Crystal Palace (31.7%).
- Everton’s only win in their last 11 games across all competitions (five draws, five defeats) came at home to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup in January.
- Sean Dyche has won seven Premier League games against Palace, only beating Bournemouth more often (eight times). He is unbeaten in his last seven against the Eagles since a 2-0 defeat with Burnley in November 2019.
Match Preview
Matchday 25 in the Premier League is rounded off by a huge relegation six-pointer at Goodison Park, with 18th-placed Everton aiming to drag out-of-form Crystal Palace into the thick of the relegation battle. With their preparations for the game clouded by uncertainty, the visitors will be desperate to shrug off their miserable form and put daylight between themselves and the bottom three.
Roy Hodgson’s managerial reign at Crystal Palace came to an end on Monday afternoon. The news was far from unexpected following last week’s 3-1 defeat to Chelsea, which made it just two wins in 15 games across all competitions (four draws, nine defeats), but recent a medical episode at training on Friday complicated his departure.
Reports have since suggested Oliver Glasner, who led Eintracht Frankfurt to UEFA Europa League glory in 2021-22, is primed to take over. Hodgson’s assistants Paddy McCarthy and Ray Lewington will oversee Monday’s game, which has taken on vital importance.
Jefferson Lerma put Palace ahead with a stunning strike last time out, only for their former loanee Conor Gallagher to score twice before Enzo Fernández made the points safe for Chelsea. The Eagles sorely missed the creativity of injured duo Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze last time out, and they have now lost five of their seven league games this season without either of the duo in their starting lineup (one win, one draw).
In their continued absence, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew may have to provide creativity. Mateta has actually created more chances from open play (19, 1.49 per 90 minutes) than any other Palace player in the Premier League this term, though Olise leads the way when that metric is adjusted per 90 (1.67).
At the other end, meanwhile, Palace went into MD 25 on the Premier League’s joint-longest ongoing run without a clean sheet (13 games, alongside Nottingham Forest). Marc Guéhi is still sidelined with a knee injury, so Chris Richards will likely keep his place alongside Joachim Andersen.
While Palace are in danger of sinking into the mire, Everton are in immediate peril, going into the weekend a point adrift of safety as they await the outcome of an appeal against their 10-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules.
While the Toffees initially rallied after that penalty was handed down and won four straight Premier League games in December, they have since gone seven without victory (three draws, four defeats). The Toffees have only scored four times across those games, failing to net in four of their last five including last week’s 2-0 defeat to an Erling Haaland-inspired Manchester City.
That game saw Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal drought stretch to 13 Premier League games, the striker last netting in a 1-0 win over West Ham last October. He is now just two games away from matching his longest run without a goal in the Premier League (15 matches).
While Calvert-Lewin’s struggles have not helped Everton’s cause, they have also been without leading goalscorer Abdoulaye Doucouré for 10 of their last 11 games across all competitions.
Doucouré’s six goals in the Premier League this term is at least twice as many as any other Everton player (Jack Harrison and Calvert-Lewin have three), and he could be involved on Monday after returning to training, though Arnaut Danjuma and André Gomes are still out.
The omens are good for the Toffees as Dyche prepares to go up against one of his favourite opponents. He’s won seven Premier League matches against Palace, only beating Bournemouth more often (eight times). He is also unbeaten in his last seven league games against the Eagles (four wins, three draws) since a 2-0 defeat with Burnley in November 2019.
If his team are to pull clear of the drop zone, Dyche will rely on the experience of players like Ashley Young, with the 38-year-old having made 18 league starts this season; the only English outfielder to make more starts in a single Premier League campaign while aged 38 or older is Stuart Pearce (34 for West Ham in 2000-01).
Everton vs Crystal Palace Head-to-Head
Monday’s game will be the fourth between Everton and Crystal Palace this season. The Toffees won November’s reverse fixture at Selhurst Park by a 3-2 scoreline, with Idrissa Gueye scoring a late winner.
The teams were then paired together in the third round of the FA Cup, playing out a goalless draw in London before Everton won the replay 1-0, courtesy of a stunning Gomes free-kick.
Everton are now targeting their first league double over Palace since the 2004-05 season, while they could manage three wins against a particular opponent within a single season for the first time since 2019-20, when they did so against Watford.
Palace won 3-2 on back-to-back trips to Goodison back in 2014, but they have failed to win on any of their eight subsequent visits to the ground, recording three draws and five defeats in that time.
Recent Form
Everton’s only win in their last 11 games across all competitions came in that aforementioned FA Cup replay against Palace (five draws, five defeats).
The Toffees have at least taken something from their last two home league games, though, holding Aston Villa to a goalless draw in mid-January before Jarrad Branthwaite’s stoppage-time header salvaged a point in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Palace have struggled on the road lately, losing their last three away league games and shipping 11 goals in the process, against Chelsea (2-1), Arsenal (5-0) and Brighton and Hove Albion (4-1).
They last lost more successive top-flight games on the road in the 2019-20 season, which they finished with four straight road defeats.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Monday at Goodison Park, here is the current Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Everton vs Crystal Palace Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is siding with the hosts for what should be a close-run affair, with Everton winning 38.8% of our match simulations ahead of kick-off.
Palace are given a 31.6% chance of victory, with the points shared in 29.6% of scenarios.
The Opta supercomputer’s season predictions, meanwhile, Everton are given a 17.6% chance of relegation, with Sheffield United (97.7%), Burnley (95.5%), Luton Town (47%) and Nottingham Forest (29.7%) all seen as more likely to drop to the Championship at the time of writing.
Palace are relegated in 9.8% of scenarios, finishing 15th (22.4%) most often across our projections.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our new football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.