Match Preview: Everton take on high-flying Eagles

After another entertaining win in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, Everton resume Premier League action tomorrow as they travel to unbeaten Crystal Palace for an early season top-of-the table clash.

Palace have had a terrific start to the season, just like Everton and they are riding high especially after a fine win at Manchester United last weekend.

Roy Hodges is a persistently under-rated manager who has quietly built a solid, consistent team at Selhurst Park. They are usually a difficult and awkward side to play against and one that really responds to his simple, if slightly conservative approach.

His Palace teams also seem to be able to raise their game when they play the so-called ‘top teams’ especially away from home. They particularly enjoy visits to Manchester!

Critically the Eagles also have several quality attacking players who are in particularly good form so far this season.

Wilfried Zaha has been excellent as has Andros Townsend as well. Despite all the speculation about his future and persistent links to Everton, Zaha has played well and produced a man-of-the-match display at Old Trafford.

It will be interesting to see how the Ivory Coast forward plays tomorrow given how much talk there has been again this summer about him moving to Goodison Park.

Palace tend to be a classically defensive, counter-attacking side and look to break quickly and take their chances well. It is a safety-first strategy that has served Hodgson and his team well. They should be fine again this season, unless Zaha leaves, which may seriously impact them.

As for Everton, obviously we would expect to see Carlo Ancelotti bring back his three new signings and reverting to the team that has played so well at Tottenham and against West Brom, at Goodison Park last weekend.

None of the other players who played in the Carabao Cup games have done enough to seriously challenge them for a starting place.

Although the individuals who have most impressed in the cup games, such as Niels Nkounkou, Bernard and Anthony Gordon have surely made a strong case for a place in the matchday squad.

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The Toffees have been playing some brilliant attacking stuff this season and I anticipate more of the same tomorrow.

According to Whoscored.com, at the moment, Everton are the top ranked team in the Premier League overall, lets hope it stays that way until May!

But defensive weaknesses have not gone away with uncertainly still around the centre-backs, particularly Yerry Mina and the nagging doubts about the future of Jordan Pickford, which refuse to go away, especially after Wednesday night’s performance.

Unless the Toffees can sort out these problems, Everton won’t be able to compete at the top table. And it will probably prevent them achieving what their much-improved attacking potential should enable them to.

Although the Blues have been scoring for fun recently, I would imagine this opponent will be a tougher nut to crack, although with the attacking resources that are now available to Everton now, you never know. More important is to get the points and maintain the momentum of an excellent start to the campaign.