Still they wait. Sam Allardyce’s arrival has not quite given Crystal Palace the jumpstart their season so desperately needed. He remains without a Premier League victory to his name with his new club, who once again squandered the opportunity to take points from a home fixture, this time against a resurgent Everton who were craftier and classier.
The auguries were unpromising. Palace’s most likely source of inspiration, Wilfried Zaha, was in Gabon with Ivory Coast and Swansea City’s lunchtime endeavours sent Allardyce’s side back into the relegation places at kick-off, while visitors Everton had taken 10 points from the previous 12.
Notoriously up and down, Everton swaggered south very much up, having hammered Manchester City 4-0 on Sunday, with Ross Barkley lambent once more and with young Tom Davies and Mason Holgate.
On Tuesday, Christian Benteke came off the bench to ease Palace into the FA Cup fourth round. Yesterday he started with Loic Remy, who began a Premier League match for the first time this season. With his eager sidekick, Benteke finally began to look the Palace part and he was most unfortunate, when James McArthur crossed deep, to head onto Joel Robles’ bar.
Everton, though, have the easy air of a team whose time has come. With Barkley having one of his more imperious afternoons and Kevin Mirallas taking advantage of the width offered by Palace’s three-man rearguard, Wayne Hennessey evolved into the first half’s outstanding contributor, saving well from Mirallas and Barkley and then, quite brilliantly, from Ramiro Funes Mori. When Hennessey was beaten, the goal was rightly disallowed: Romelu Lukaku’s drive hit the post, Barkley, clearly offside, tapped in the rebound.
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Predictably, Allardyce’s Palace are more solid, but less whizz-bang than Alan Pardew’s vintage and Selhurst Park was less the cauldron the new manager had demanded in his programme notes, more a gathering of south London stoics. After the break Joel Ward – finally restored to his natural right side – and Jeffrey Schlupp dropped back to bolster the defence.
Everton began to sense that Palace’s attacking timidity and desperation not to lose might be turned to their advantage. Twice Barkley went close. First after a surging run that recalled peak Yaya Toure; then, after a long-range howitzer that saw Hennessey scrambling across his goal line to keep it out, Seamus Coleman crossed dangerously, only for Lukaku to head over.
Still, though, the goal would not come and what had been an intriguing afternoon slowly slipped into torpor, until, on a rare excursion forwards, Jason Puncheon lobbed in a free-kick that Scott Dann met with a fierce downwards header, only for Robles to dive to his right and save magnificently. It was Palace’s first effort on target.
Then the controversy. A Palace attack broke down and Schlupp rolled off the field, injured. He promptly rolled back on, still injured and the home fans howled for referee Anthony Taylor to halt the game.
Taylor demurred, both teams continued until Tom Davies found Coleman with an incisive, defence-splitting through ball. As Ireland manager Martin O’Neill looked on, Coleman reacted quicker than Damien Delaney and thumped the ball past Hennessey for three points and his first goal of 2017 to leave Palace looking for their first home victory over Everton this century; Allardyce looking for his first Palace league victory and Everton, surprising even themselves, looking towards Europe.