Everton at Crystal Palace: Opposition Analysis | No Time To Waste in Push for Europe

Everton's Argentinian midfielder #24 Charly Alcaraz (R) shoots and scores his team second goal during the English Premier League football match between Crystal Palace and Everton at Selhurst Park in south London on February 15, 2025. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP) | AFP via Getty Images If last Monday’s game against Manchester City was an unusual one – I’m certain that nobody anticipated a 3-3 thriller at the Hill Dickinson Stadium – then reaction to both the match, and its implications for Everton ’s prospects of qualifying for Europe have been a little skewed. Beforehand, the team’s chances of winning were written off, given City seemed in the midst of a trademark come-from-behind title charge, but following the draw, many commentators have spun this into a doom-and-gloom scenario, with continental qualification dismissed.

This is hard to understand, given the three games which the team has left to play are all winnable. OK, Everton are currently on a four-match winless run, which hardly speaks to ending the campaign with unstoppable momentum, but a point against City has to be looked upon as a bonus, given the relative strengths of the two sides. Yes, the nature of the final result was always going to be a downer; it’s hard to see it as anything but two points squandered.

The manner of the second goal, for example, was inexcusable, with the team’s experienced defensive duo of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane effectively laying down the red carpet for the division’s most fearsome predatory striker, Erling Haaland, to run in on a helpless Jordan Pickford. So, yes, frustration is inevitable, but the negativity has still been excessive. The Blues can make amends in short order by taking all three points from Sunday’s trip to South London, where they’ll take on a potentially distracted Crystal Palace, who will be playing their ninth game in 31 days — four more than the Toffees over the same period.

Form It’s been quite an unusual year or so for the Eagles. Manager Oliver Glasner wins the first major trophy in the club’s history, last season’s FA Cup, only to gradually – and ultimately spectacularly – fall out with the owners, over a perceived (OK, factual) lack of backing over the summer. Although he lost the talented Eberechi Eze to Arsenal , following on from the exit of classy winger Micheal Olise a year earlier, the Austrian was able to halt the sale of captain and star defender Marc Guéhi to Liverpool , but reinforcements arrived late and were inadequate to the demands of a Premier League campaign, added to Palace’s first venture into Europe.