Premier League: Crystal Palace 0 Everton 0

Both teams had chances to take maximum points at Selhurst Park, with Kagisho Dikgacoi and Jerome Thomas squandering opportunities for the hosts, while Phil Jagielka hit the crossbar for Everton.

Despite probably seeing the result as two points dropped, Everton have now gone five and a half hours without conceding and have lost just one of their opening 11 Premier League fixtures.

Thomas beat the offside trap to find himself through one-on-one with Howard eight minutes into the second half, but the winger sent his chip wide of the American's left post.

Substitute Cameron Jerome created an angle for himself on the edge of the penalty area six minutes later, but skewed his effort well wide of Howard’s left-hand post.

Everton centre-back Jagielka had the crossbar shaking after 77 minutes as his diving header from a corner came agonisingly close to giving Martinez’s men the lead.

The visitors pushed hard for a winner in the closing stages, but were forced to settle for a draw as Palace collected just their fourth point of the season.