Blues battle for three points and a clean sheet

Match Report: Everton 1 Chelsea 0

A bit unexpected that as Everton produced a fine performance of defensive resilience and determination to secure a big three points against high-flying Chelsea yesterday.

Going into this match I had feared that the Toffees would come unstick in a big way against one of the form teams in the Premier League and I don’t think I was the only Evertonian who thought that.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti stuck with the 4-3-3 formation he’s used most of this season and without his Colombian ace James Rodriguez he pushed Alex Iwobi up to play on the right of the attack.

Gylfi Sigurdsson also came back into the side for the latest in his seemingly endless opportunities to deliver in an Everton shirt. We’ve seen him in and out of the team throughout Ancelotti’s time in charge and the Italian does seem to be willing to keep giving his Icelandic international chances.

Too often recently Sigurdsson’s been a pale shadow of the player who Everton thought they were getting when they paid Swansea £45 million for him. He’s lacked quality, effort and any consistency. But yesterday playing in the midfield three, Sigurdsson produced perhaps his best game for the Blues in a long time.

Actually, the whole side were good yesterday and it is hard to pick standout individuals because this was a genuine team effort for a full ninety plus minutes.

After a bright start Everton went ahead when a long ball from Jordan Pickford was controlled by Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the box and Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy clattered into the England striker for a stonewall penalty.

Sigurdsson, captain for the day, took the penalty and a little nonchalantly he side-footed the ball past Mendy. Everton deserved their lead but after that goal the visitors took over the game.

Chelsea laid siege to the Blues goal for long periods and forced Pickford to make several excellent stops to keep them out. Kurt Zouma a player whose threat I’d mentioned, had a great chance but the ex-Everton defender shot straight at Pickford. The home team were also grateful for the woodwork, which the outstanding Reece James hit on one occasion.

Everton held on for halftime and preserved their lead. After the break though the match resumed where it had left off with Chelsea on top and controlling possession while the home side were looking to counter-attack whenever they could.

Richarlison had a few chances and Calvert-Lewin was again brought down in the box only for VAR to confirm he was offside and rule out the penalty. Without Rodriguez Everton did lack a bit of creativity and didn’t look as much of a threat resorting to long balls forward a bit too often.

However, much of the time Everton were having to defend and they generally did it very well, although there were a few scares.
On one occasion in the match Pickford came out for high ball and instead of catching it sort of palmed it away a few yards forward, which had the defenders scrambling to rescue the situation. The England keeper makes some brilliant saves but he’s still a nightmare at times.

In front of him, the two makeshift full-backs Mason Holgate and Ben Godfrey were excellent especially Godfrey who had another superb match at left-back.

Inside them Michael Keane and Yerry Mina were strong and handled the threat of Olivier Giroud well. In front of the two central defenders Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure were working really hard in midfield too.

Chelsea again hit the woodwork in this half through the ever-dangerous Mason Mount, but after surviving a frantic spell of late pressure the Toffees had secured the points and the psychological boost of a clean sheet.