Key events
Meet the new manager. He is not the same as the old manager.
Glasner’s on-field vision can be traced back to his time at Red Bull. He spent two years as an assistant coach at Salzburg under Roger Schmidt, who later coached Bayer Leverkusen, PSV and Benfica. Although formation is important for Glasner, his style is more based on player behavior when it comes to understanding high pressing and counter-pressing.
Ed Aarons on the sad end to Roy Hodgson’s managerial career
Team news: Doucour starts for Everton
Very good news for Everton: their top goalscorer Abdoulaye Doucoure returns to the starting lineup after injury. He replaces Jack Harrison in the only change since last weekend’s defeat at Manchester City.
Bringing in Crystal Palace Sam Johnstone, Joel Ward And Odsonne Edouard for Dean Henderson, Will Hughes and Matheus Franca. That could mean a switch to a back five, like Palace played at Goodison in the FA Cup last month; Either that or Chris Richards moves into midfield
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; Godfrey, Tarkovsky, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Young, Doucour, McNeil; Calvert Lewin.
Substitutes: Virginia, Lonergan, Patterson, Keane, Onana, Harrison, Beto, Chermiti, Dobbin.
Crystal Palace (possible 5-4-1) Johnstone; Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Richards Mitchell; Ayew, Wharton, Lerma, Edouard; Mateta.
Substitutes: Henderson, Tomkins, Franca, Clyne, Ahamada, Riedewald, Ozoh, Umeh, Raymond.
referee Paul Tierney.
preamble
Don’t you hate it when a football game interrupts the news cycle? Everton and Crystal Palace are competing for both headlines and points and there has never been a Premier League game with a comparable build-up. A team is about to learn whether their appeal against a 10-point deduction was successful; the other appointed a new manager just hours before kick-off.
The news cycle can wait a few hours. This is a really big game: not exactly a six-point game, but one of the more important games in the relegation mini-league that has formed at the bottom of the Premier League. If Everton win tonight they will move out of the bottom three and move to within two points of Palace. That would make spandex tight between 14th and 18th. A win for Palace, on the other hand, would give them an eight-point lead over Everton and seven over Luton. Not entirely safe, but with less pressure to look over your shoulder every few minutes.
In a sense, it is a battle of the besieged. Everton have had a siege mentality since losing 10 points in November; The outcome of her appeal will reportedly be announced in the next 48 hours. They haven’t won a Premier League game in over two months, although their game plan in that time has been rather diabolical or difficult.
Palace have conceded nine goals in their last two away games and will be without their two best players Michael Olise and Ebere Eze tonight. With Roy Hodgson’s great 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 leave him feeling a lot lighter.
Begin 8 p.m.
