Everton 3-1 Crystal Palace: Toffees maintain hopes of European football

Everton maintained their recent good form as they overcame struggling Crystal Palace 3-1 at Goodison Park on Saturday lunchtime to move up to seventh in the Premier League.

Bernard opened the scoring after just 18 minutes with a well-struck volley, the Brazilian's third goal of the season on his 50th league appearance for Everton.

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However, despite dominating the first half, Palace - who fielded their oldest-ever starting lineup in Premier League history - drew level six minutes after half-time thanks to Christian Benteke's first top-flight goal since last April, only for Richarlison to fire the hosts back in front just before the hour-mark.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin's late header confirmed Everton's victory, the striker's sixth goal in eight appearances under new boss Carlo Ancelotti.

As a result, Everton move up to seventh in the table, while Roy Hodgson's team stay 14th, but after just one win in their last 11 games, the Eagles are just six points from safety having now played a match more than their relegation rivals.

How Everton jumped up to seventh

Everton came into the game on the back of just one defeat in their previous 10 matches, form that had seen Ancelotti's side surge up the table, and that was borne out in their early dominance.

Lucas Digne tested Vicente Guaita with a third-minute free kick and while Patrick van Aanholt did see his deflected drive hit the outside of the post, the home side soon found themselves ahead.

Theo Walcott showed quick feet to skip past Van Aanholt's attentions on the right, before whipping in an inviting ball that the unmarked Bernard swept past Guaita with a cushioned timed volley.

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Against the run of play, however, the visitors levelled matters when Benteke collected Wilfried Zaha's through-ball and somehow fired a shot through Jordan Pickford to end a barren 18-match scoreless run in the league. It is not a goal the England goalkeeper will look back on with any fondness though.

Not that the scores stayed level for long, with the hosts retaking the lead seven minutes later after a piece of individual brilliance from Richarlison, the Brazil forward's 11th goal of the campaign.

And despite Benteke hitting a post with a close-range header, Everton sealed the win with Calvert-Lewin's 88th-minute header, the 22-year-old's 13th goal of the season maintaining his side's hopes of European football next season with the Toffees now sitting just a point off Tottenham in fifth.

Opta stats

• Only Liverpool (24) have won more Premier League points than Everton (17) since Carlo Ancelotti's first game in charge of the Toffees in December
• Crystal Palace are without a clean sheet in 10 Premier League games, the longest current run in the competition. However, this was just the second time the Eagles have conceded 3+ goals in a Premier League match this season (also 0-4 vs Spurs in September 2019)
• Crystal Palace named their oldest ever starting XI in the Premier League (30y 101d). None of the last 18 occasions a team has named a side with an average age of 30+ years in the competition has won (D3 L15), with Man City against Southampton in April 2017 the last such victory
• Everton's Theo Walcott has as many goal involvements in his last two Premier League games (1 goal, 1 assist) as he did in his previous 20 in the competition (also 1 goal, 1 assist).

Managers

Carlo Ancelotti: "I prefer to win than to have a good performance and lose. It is normal. The result is really important for us after a performance that was not so good for 60 minutes.

"In this moment we believe in what we are doing and that is the most important part.

"The work everyone has done was really good: players, club, staff, everyone and now our table is good and we can dream to fight for the Europa League in the next games."

Roy Hodgson: "I thought we played well for large parts of the game. Not right at the start but neither side were they playing well," he said.

"For 20-25 minutes there was not much going on but after that I thought we started to play much better.

"We started the second half extremely well and when we got the equaliser I thought it was a fair reflection.

"It is a defeat that hurts us badly."

Man of the Match - Richarlison

The Brazil international was the subject of reported interest from Barcelona in his services in January, and on the basis of this energetic display, you can see why.

The forward was a constant thorn in the Palace defence all afternoon long, perhaps best illustrated by the 22-year-old's crucial strike that gave his side the lead again minutes after the visitors had equalised.

Latching on to Calvert-Lewin's clever flick-on, Richarlison still had a lot of work to do, only for the striker to turn the experienced Gary Cahill inside out, before his curling effort found the bottom righthand corner of the net.

What's next?

Everton face Arsenal at the Emirates - a match you can see live on Sky Sports Premier League - although not till Sunday February 23 after their midseason break.

Meanwhile, Palace take on Newcastle at Selhurst Park, with the Eagles having to wait until Saturday February 22 for their next league outing.

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