Crystal Palace vs Everton 19/20

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

Hi everybody,

Hope you are all well

For my 16th Birthday this year, My mum bought me a Crystal Palace season ticket for the 2019/2020 Premier league season so this means I have a guaranteed place at all home games.

On Saturday 10th August I returned to Selhurst Park to watch Palaces first game of the season. It was against Everton. Palace didn't have a very good pre-season winning only one out off eight games so we were hoping the "loosing streak" would come to an end in our first game of the 2019/2020 premier league campaign. During the summer we didn't make as many signings as Palace fans hoped we would only signing Jordan Ayew on a permanent deal after being on loan to us last season, Gary Cahill from Chelsea FC on a permanent deal, Victor Camarasa on a season long deal and finally James McCarthy from Everton FC also in a permanent deal. Hopefully these signings can help improve the Palace Team. But we did loose one of our best players Aaron Wan-Bissaka after he left us for Manchester United. We did get 50 million for him so hopefully the remainder of the money will get invested into the club.

The game started at 3pm and it was a warm but very windy day. The wind had an impact on the direction of the ball and it nearly led the ball to hit my head but my mum caught it in time . Everton had a very early chance in the third minute but wasnt able to take the chance and follow through. They then had another chance in the 15th minute but Benteke was in the right place to be able to block the shot. It wasn't until the 16th minute, Palace were able to come through with their first chance of the game as Max Meyer found space down the left but then Everton defence was able to intercept the cross at the near post.

In the first half our whole defence worked very well and made some key challenges to stop Everton from being able to attack. In the 30th minute Palace had another opportunity as Meyer tried to get the ball into the box. There was an immediate shout for a penalty from Meyer as the ball hit an Everton defenders arm, but due to the distance it was not deemed as a penalty.

Palace's goalkeeper Guaita, had to make many saves throughout the game and he didn't fail to do so by making some excellent ones! VAR was in use in the Premier League for the first time this season and it was first called upon during the game when there was a possible red card for Luka Milivojevic when he made a challenge on Everton midfielder, Bernard. The VAR was checked and there was no red card issued. The use of VAR has been very controversial but hopefully it does well in the Prem.

Palace had another chance just before half time, when we were given a free kick which Milivojevic took quickly after finding Townsend in space, he then passed it onto Max Meyer down the left but the chance was stopped by Everton. Palace ended the first half very strongly after being able to take may changes but none followed through.

Due to the new players coming in, players such as James McArthur worked very hard to try and maintain their place in the team.

There were a lot of bookings at the beginning of the second half mainly for the Everton team. There goalkeeper Jordan Pickford hadnt had to make a save until the 56th minute after Benteke found Jordan Ayew in space leaving him one on one with the keeper but Pickford did well to close the angle and stop the shot. Shortly after he was needed again to make a save but this time the shot came from Max Meyer as he got a good first touch and was able to take the shot on.

After a long summer of there being reports about Zaha wanting to leave Palace, in the 65th minute he was brought on from the bench and he was given very warm reception from the fans as his name echoed around Selhurst Park. Due to Zaha being heavily linked for a move to Everton, the Palace fans sang his song "He's just too good for you" to show he is valuable player at Palace who we didn't want to lose. Zaha's first involvement in the game was when the ball nearly got to his feet in a very dangerous position in the box but the Everton defenders were able to keep it out.

For the rest of the second half Palace were the better team and were able to create more chances but Everton's defence were able to keep them at bay. In the 76th minute , Everton's Morgan Schneiderlin was shown a red card after positioning his foot high on Milivojevic sending him to the ground in pain. Everton were now down to ten men.

Palace made their second substitution in the 83rd minute bringing Benteke off for Connor Wickham. In the final minutes of the game palace was awarded a free kick after Zaha was fouled by Everton's Mina but nothing came from this free kick.

The game was moving at a good pace throughout the whole 90 minutes but no teams were able to score leaving the game at a 0-0 draw. Palace shouldnt be too disappointed with this result because they played very well against a good team.

My Man of the Match would have to be Max Meyer because he worked extremely hard thorough the whole 90 minutes and really pushed to get a result out of the game.

After the game we stayed behind to see some of the players. I took my last seasons shirt to be signed by the players so it can eventually be framed along with my other shirt. The players i saw were Patrick Van-aanholt, Christian Benteke, Luka Milivojevic, new signings Gary Cahill and Victor Camarasa, Scott Dann, Max Meyer, Cheikou Kouyate, Connor Wickham, Wayne Hennessey. I didn't have pictures with all the players cause my main priority was getting my shirt signed.