Everton 1-0 Chelsea: Three Things We Learned

Another weekend of Premier League football is officially in the books and with the turnaround being so short this week, many teams don’t have much time to learn from whatever happened over the course of the last few days. That’s particularly true for Chelsea who, after going on a strong run of form in recent weeks, hit a brick wall in the form of an Everton side who managed to grind out an impressive 1-0 win at Goodison Park.

Help from the fans

Carlo Ancelotti himself claimed that the impact of having 2,000 fans in the stadium helped massively for Everton, and even if you want to cast a shadow of doubt over that estimation, you could definitely feel a stronger atmosphere than we’ve seen for the majority of 2020. Everton knew they were the big underdogs heading into this one based on the last few weeks, but they dug deep – and the part that supporters had to play in that shouldn’t be understated.

No fight in Chelsea?

The manner in which Everton went about winning this game was simple: they tried to bully Chelsea into submission, and it worked. The likes of Kante, Zouma and James were all up for the fight but outside of that, the Blues just didn’t want to be there. They’ve got too many players within their ranks that will only be able to thrive if they’re given time on the ball, and if the service isn’t there, they crumble. There are some serious lessons to take away from this and Frank Lampard himself will know that.

Title race readjustment

At this moment in time, Chelsea are the joint-third favourites to win the title with 888sport at 5/1. Based on recent evidence we’d say that’s fair enough, especially when you consider the amount of hype that has been put behind them so far this season. We don’t think this one result is going to lead to them dropping off in a big way, but it does show the gulf between Chelsea and teams like Manchester City or Liverpool. They need to start behaving like champions, and that’s not an easy thing to do in this league.

Match Report

Everton: Pickford (7.5), Godfrey (7), Keane (7.5), Mina (7.5), Holgate (7), Doucoure (6.5), Allan (7.5), Sigurdsson (8), Richarlison (7.5), Calvert-Lewin (7.5), Iwobi (7), Davies (6), Kenny (6), Gomes (6)

Chelsea: Mendy (6.5), James (7), Zouma (7.5), Silva (6), Chilwell (6.5), Kovacic (6.5), Kante (6.5), Mount (7), Havertz (6.5), Giroud (6), Werner (5.5), Gilmour (6.5), Abraham (6)

Referee: Jonathan Moss

Goals: Sigurdsson pen

Yellow Cards: Doucoure, Richarlison, James, Silva, Kante

Red Cards: N/A