Everton up to third despite being held by Palace

Romelu Lukaku will start for Everton against Crystal Palace on Friday night despite concerns over a toe problem.

Jonathan Benteke, brother of Palace’s second highest scorer Christian, will face four months out after the Belgian suffered from a serious knee injury in training; The Eagles’s top scorer and captain Scott Dann remains absent (hamstring).

They played against Sunderland on the sixth matchday of the Premier League and won the match by 2-3.

The draw extends Palace’s good run of form; it is now five league games unbeaten for the South London side, a remarkable turnaround following the negativity after losing their opening two matches.

“Everton’s defeat was a reminder there is still work to be done and they will be determined to return to winning ways”. A win for Palace would see them draw level on points with Koeman’s team. There was nothing wrong with Lukaku’s left-foot curler from a free-kick on the edge of the area that left Steve Mandanda barely bothering to move, just a question of whether it should have been an Everton free-kick.

After an eye-catching start to the campaign, Ronald Koeman will be spotting aspects of his team’s displays which are rather less to his liking and the smattering of boos which greeted the final whistle indicated Everton’s supporters are, too.

“We like to see a reaction, but you’re talking about one defeat from six games in the Premier League”.

Alan Pardew welcomes Wilfried Zaha back to the Crystal Palace squad for Friday night’s Premier League trip to Everton.

“But I really believe we can bring Everton back and to fight for European football and, maybe, in the future bring the club back into the Champions League“. Lukaku has Christian’s shirt for Belgium at the moment and Christian wants that shirt – a great sub-plot.

Seamus Coleman then sent an effort of his own wide of the target before the deadlock was finally broken in some style by Lukaku for his fifth goal of the season.

Crystal Palace hope to welcome on loan Chelsea striker Loic Remy back into their side in time for the festive period.

The striker made it two goals in his last two matches and three in seven so far for Palace with the type of old-fashioned centre forward’s header that he was signed for.

Probability of away win: 22%.