Key events
Half-time reading
Half time: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace
Peep peep! Tense, nervous headache? Try being an Everton fan. That was an angst-ridden first 45 minutes at Goodison Park, with the home side struggling to impose themselves on a more relaxed Palace side.
Everton did have the best chance when Dominic Calvert-Lewin headed Dwight McNeilâs cross off target, but there was no sustained pressure and overall Palace will be the happier â with the score, and the way the match has gone.
43 min The Everton players and crowd have been nervous all night, a situation that is perpetuating itself. They need half-time.
40 min This is Palaceâs best spell. Doucoure does well to get between Edouard and the ball in the area, then Matetaâs shot is blocked by Branthwaite. The Everton fans roar with a kind of affronted defiance.
38 min: Off the line by Young! Palace almost score their first goal from a corner all season. Whartonâs outswinger was met at the far post by Mateta, whose downward header took a touch off Godfrey and was kicked off the line by Young.
37 min The home crowd are getting increasingly irritated: with the referee, their team and life itself. It hasnât gone well so far, although we shouldnât get carried away: the only save Pickford has had to make was a comfortable one.
35 min: Chance for Palace! That was a fine move. Edouard slipped Godfrey on the left, played a one-two with Mateta and fed the ball into Ayew. He turned away from a defender and swept the ball across to Munoz on the far side of the area. Munoz laid it back first time to Lerma, who shot over from 20 yards.
33 min Adam Wharton has again looked good in midfield for Palace: calm, organised and with superb awareness for a 20-year-old.
31 min Tarkowski produces a superb defensive header to stop Andersenâs long cross reaching a Palace player, Mateta I think.
28 min Everton are starting to threaten. Mykolenko curls a fine first-time cross that is headed wide by Young, under pressure from Mitchell at the far post. Godfrey was coming in behind him and might have had a better chance.
26 min Gaarner takes it, in fact, and soon wishes he hadnât: goalkick to Palace.
25 min Calvert-Lewin rolls Lerma right on the edge of the area and is fouled. The free-kick is to the right of centre, though possibly too wide for a shot. Dwight McNeil will be the man to decideâ¦
24 min Pickford sweeper-keeps outside his area, battering a clearance that hits Edouard and ricochets for a throw-in. Could have gone anywhere, etc.
23 min: Chance for Calvert-Lewin! Doucoure cushions a pass out to McNeil, who gallops into space and curls a beautiful cross towards Calvert-Lewin. He gets in front of Richards, 10 yards out, and thumps a towering header just wide of the near post.
An in-form Calvert-Lewin would have scored that maybe eight times out of ten. Alas, this version has gone 18 games without a goal.
20 min Tarkowski curls a promising pass over the top towards McNeil. Andersen reads it and heads calmly back to the keeper Johnstone.
18 min Everton havenât got going, the players or the crowd, and Palace look surprisingly comfortable.
16 min Pickford sprays a marvellous 70-yard pass to McNeil in the inside-left channel. Ward challenges him in the area but can only scoop the ball towards Doucoure, who volleys wide from 20 yards.
14 min âSad to see Roy Hodgson go,â says Charles Antaki. âHe always seemed to care about football â not manically or nerdliy, but, it seemed to me anyway, because he thought it was one of those good things in life, to be thought about, relished and savoured, and a place to deal with people decently for the common good of winning a sporting game. Perhaps thatâs a sentimental view, but when somebody has to leave something he clearly loved, but wasnât loving him much back, thereâs a place for a bit of sentiment.â
Itâs fascinating and a little unnerving how many sports careers â great and good – end on a low note.
12 min: Chance for Palace! Mateta cracks an excellent pass across the field to find Edouard on the edge of the area. He moves the ball away from Godfrey, onto his left foot, but shoots straight at Pickford from a tightish angle.
11 min Munoz stays down after being caught on the ankle by McNeil. The referee didnât give a foul and, though VAR had a look, it has been cleared. As Alan Smith says on Sky Sports, it was a yellow card at most.
9 min Garnerâs inswinger is headed away by Edouard.
8 min Everton win the first corner of the game on the left. Garner will take itâ¦
6 min A long-range shot from Gueye is blocked by Andersen, which gets the crowd going a bit.
5 min Itâs surprisingly quiet at Goodison, or at least it sounds that way on the TV. I expected a ferocious start from Everton but it hasnât happened yet.
4 min An excellent cross from Mitchell is put behind by the stretching Tarkowski, a crucial interception with Mateta waiting behind him. He would have had an extremely good chance without Tarkowskiâs touch.
2 min Palace are playing with three centre-backs: Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen and Chris Richards. These are the revised teams.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Godfrey, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Doucoure, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Patterson, Keane, Onana, Harrison, Beto, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Crystal Palace (5-2-2-1) Johnstone; Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Richards, Mitchell; Lerma, Wharton; Ayew, Edouard; Mateta.
Substitutes: Henderson, Tomkins, Franca, Clyne, Ahamada, Riedewald, Ozoh, Umeh, Raymond.
1 min Peep peep! Palace kick off from left to right as we watch.
Oliver Glasner is in the crowd as expected. There are loud boos, presumably for the Premier League anthem rather than Glasner. Itâs almost time for business.
âGoodison feels nervous – but it has done for a long time now,â writes Gary Naylor. âWhether this is a must-win match on rational terms is debatable, but, right here, right now, anything less than a win will be emotionally shattering.
âIâm about to enter a world of pain – and I wouldnât want to be anywhere else.â
âIâd like to add Fulham plaudits to the Palace ones for Roy Hodgson,â writes Richard Hirst. âWhen Roy took over in 2008 we were pretty much relegation certainties, only for him to keep us up on the last day of the season. He then followed that with our highest league place in 2008-09 and topped that a year later by taking us to the Europa League final.
âHe not only gave supporters the undreamed of opportunity of seeing our team walk out in a European final but along the way added probably the single greatest game in Fulhamâs history, the comeback from 4-1 down against Juventus. A true hero at Fulham, never to be forgotten.â
Some weeks are bigger than others
Lose the appeal⦠and not only does the 10-point punishment stand but the threat increases of a second points deduction before the end of the season. The second charge, after all, covers two-thirds of the period for which Everton have already been found guilty of a £19.5m breach.
Meet the new manager. Heâs not the same as the old manager.
Glasnerâs on-pitch vision can be traced to his time working for Red Bull. He spent two years as an assistant coach at Salzburg under Roger Schmidt, who went on to manage Bayer Leverkusen, PSV and Benfica. Although the formation is important to Glasner, his style is based more around the behaviour of players when it comes to understanding the high press and counterpress.
Ed Aarons on a sad end to Roy Hodgsonâs managerial career
Team news: Doucoure starts for Everton
Very good news for Everton: their top scorer Abdoulaye Doucoure returns to the starting XI after injury. He replaces Jack Harrison in the only change from last weekendâs defeat at Manchester City.
Crystal Palace bring in Sam Johnstone, Joel Ward and Odsonne Edouard for Dean Henderson, Will Hughes and Matheus Franca. That might mean a switch to a back five, which is how Palace played at Goodison in the FA Cup last month; either that or Chris Richards will move into midfield
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Godfrey, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Doucoure, McNeil; Calvert-Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Patterson, Keane, Onana, Harrison, Beto, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Crystal Palace (possible 4-1-4-1) Johnstone; Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Mitchell; Richards; Ayew, Wharton, Lerma, Edouard; Mateta.
Substitutes: Henderson, Tomkins, Franca, Clyne, Ahamada, Riedewald, Ozoh, Umeh, Raymond.
Referee Paul Tierney.
Preamble
Donât you hate it when a football match interrupts the news cycle? Everton and Crystal Palace are competing for headlines as well as points, and there has never been a Premier League game with a build-up quite like this. One team is about to hear whether their appeal against a 10-point deduction has been successful; the other appointed a new manager a few hours before kick-off.
The news cycle can wait for a few hours. This is a really big game: not quite a six-pointer but one of the more important matches in the relegation mini-league that has formed at the bottom of the Premier League. Everton will move out of the bottom three and to within two points of Palace if they win tonight. That would make things Spandex-tight between 14th and 18th. A win for Palace, on the other hand, would put them eight points clear of Everton and seven of Luton. Not quite safe, but with less of a compulsion to look over their shoulder every few minutes.
In a sense itâs a battle of the beleaguered. Everton have had a siege mentality since they were deducted 10 points in November; the result of their appeal will reportedly be announced in the next 48 hours. They havenât won a Premier League game in over two months, though their fixture list in that time has been on the fiendish side of difficult.
Palace have conceded nine goals in their last two away games and will be without their best two players, Michael Olise and Ebere Eze tonight. With Roy Hodgsonâs fine career coming to a sad end, Paddy McCarthy and Ray Lewington will look after the team tonight.
Glasner, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, is expected to watch the game from the stands. A win for Palace would make his in-tray feel a whole lot lighter.
Kick off 8pm.