Everton host Crystal Palace at the Hill Dickinson Stadium this weekend in a fixture that has, of late, been oddly one-sided.
But it wasn’t always that way, and the roots of this rivalry go back over a century.
Where it all started
The first six meetings between these two clubs were all FA Cup ties, long before either side had established itself in the top flight.
Palace actually got the better of those earliest exchanges — thrashing Everton 6-0 at Goodison Park in 1922 — though the Toffees won every other tie between them in that period, including a 6-0 away win of their own in 1931.
League meetings didn’t come along until much later.
Palace simply didn’t have many top-flight seasons before the 1990s, so the first proper league fixtures between the sides arrived in 1969-70 — a season Everton finished as champions, taking four points off Palace along the way.
The modern record
Sixty-six meetings, all competitions: Everton 29 wins, Crystal Palace 15 wins, 22 draws
That’s a clear ‘win’ for Everton, but the gap has widened sharply in the last few years. The Toffees have lost just two of the last 26 meetings across all competitions, and go into this weekend unbeaten in 11 against Palace.
Both of those defeats came in the same miserable spell during the 2021-22 season — a 3-1 Premier League loss at Selhurst Park under Rafael Benítez, followed by a 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final battering under Frank Lampard a few months later.
Since then, Palace simply haven’t found a way past Everton.
The turning point
The 11-match unbeaten run goes back to one of the most significant results of the Moyes era.
In May 2022, with Everton needing points to survive relegation, Palace led 2-0 at half-time at Goodison Park in the second-to-last game of the season.
Everton responded with goals from Michael Keane, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin to win 3-2 in front of a rocking Gwladys Street, buying themselves one more week of Premier League survival before the job was finished at Arsenal.
Every meeting between the two since has gone Everton’s way or ended level — including a 2-1 comeback win at the Hill Dickinson in October last season, sealed by a stoppage-time Jack Grealish winner, and a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park in May that saw Everton twice take the lead through James Tarkowski and Beto before being pegged back.
Historic quirks worth knowing…
Everton’s 4-0 win over Palace in 2004-05 played its part in relegating the Eagles that season — and also produced a slice of Premier League history, with James Vaughan becoming the youngest scorer in the competition’s history at 16 years and eight months old.
That record still stands.
Palace have had their moments too. Their 3-2 win at Goodison in April 2014 effectively ended Everton’s top-four hopes under Roberto Martínez that season — just to prove this fixture hasn’t always gone one way.
Last 10 Premier League meetings
| Date | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 2026 | Crystal Palace 2-2 Everton | Premier League |
| 5 Oct 2025 | Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace | Premier League |
| 15 Feb 2025 | Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton | Premier League |
| 28 Sep 2024 | Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace | Premier League |
| 19 Feb 2024 | Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace | Premier League |
| 11 Nov 2023 | Crystal Palace 2-3 Everton | Premier League |
| 22 Apr 2023 | Crystal Palace 0-0 Everton | Premier League |
| 22 Oct 2022 | Everton 3-0 Crystal Palace | Premier League |
| 19 May 2022 | Everton 3-2 Crystal Palace | Premier League |
| 12 Dec 2021 | Crystal Palace 3-1 Everton | Premier League |
Everton haven’t lost any of those ten. Moyes’ side go into Saturday with history firmly on their side.
