Ragged Everton frustrate in routine defeat at Chelsea

If you’d watched the first half of this match with an oblivious neutral and informed them that Everton hadn’t won on this ground in the Premier League since 1994, they’d no doubt reply by saying, “I can see why!” For 45 minutes, the Blues were as bad as they have been at any time this season under either David Moyes or Sean Dyche — directionless going forward, desperately lacking quality on the ball, wasteful in possession and were deservedly behind.

They improved in the second half — perhaps only the scoreline could have got worse — once the more purposeful Charly Alcaraz had been introduced for Iliman Ndiaye at the break and probably should have stolen a point at the end, but that might have done more for the debate over the current quality of the top flight than it would have flattered Everton.

Moyes, who has been at pains over the past fortnight or so to stress that he won’t allow his players to check out now that safety has been assured, frequently cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines and understandably so. Once again, the scale of the rebuilding task that lies ahead this summer, one perhaps too big to be fully accomplished in three or four transfer windows let alone one, was laid bare and you have to hope that he and the new recruitment team can make decisive moves in the market over the close season to add genuine talent to the ranks.

It’s been hard to avoid the word “quality” when analysing Everton in recent weeks with one eye on the summer because the gulf in that particular metric has looked so vast at times. Yet the pattern of this match illustrated the extent to which desire, effort and tenacity, all missing from the Toffees’ display before half-time, can bridge the gap and a surer finish from substitute Dwight McNeil late on might have nabbed a draw.

In the wider context, this fixture served as another audition for some of the players either angling for new contracts or trying to persuade the manager that they’re worth keeping around. Unfortunately, Alcaraz aside, none of them presented a compelling case. Nathan Patterson struggled at times through 64 minutes before being replaced by Ashley Young, Jack Harrison toiled unproductively ahead of him before making way in the same triple-change, while Beto highlighted the inherent paradox he embodies, giving the ball away cheaply for the game’s only goal but forcing the first save from Robert Sanchez when his number was already being readied by the fourth official so he could make way for Youssef Chermiti.

Unless Everton find a suitor for the Portuguese over the close season, he will be in the senior squad next season but his overall performance underscored in the starkest terms that the club needs to sign someone better to lead the line as a first-choice starter.

If the expectation was that Moyes’s men would employ an aggressive pressing game to try and disrupt their hosts’ early flow and prey on the uncertainty in their camp under Enzo Maresca, it didn’t materialise. The Londoners largely had things their own way in the first half, pinging direct balls through the visitors’ midfield at will and it took excellent covering work by James Garner to nip in ahead of Cole Palmer and he looked to steal to claim one such pass for a one-on-one duel with Jordan Pickford.

Four minutes later, the England keeper had to palm a low Noni Madueke shot behind but he was almost punished a little later on for a dreadful punch that fell to Marc Cucurella. Thankfully the full-back miscued his volley and bounced wide but less than 60 seconds later, Everton were the architects of their own downfall once more.

Pickford drove a pass to Beto on the halfway line but the striker dithered on the ball and was dispossessed by Trevoh Chalobah, with Enzo Fernandez quickly finding Nicolas Jackson outside the box. The Senegalese, without a goal since December, took advantage of the oceans of space between the split centre-halves of Jake O’Brien and Jarrad Branthwaite to drill a shot into the for corner to make it 1–0.

Everton might have had either of two penalty claims upheld with better officiating in the closing stages of the first period but referee Chris Kavanagh somehow saw fit to award a free-kick to Sanchez when he clattered through Vitalii Mykolenko, catching the full-back in the face with a leading fist in the process and then ignored Moises Caicedo bundling Beto over at the end of a rare move of quality from Moyes’s side that ended with Abdoulaye Doucouré unable to steer a cross from the Ukrainian onto the target.

With Ndiaye having been utterly stifled by Chelsea, he was the one selected to make way at the halfway stage by Moyes and Alcaraz was eventually able to find more joy by dropping deep and driving the team forward.

The first 15 minutes after half-time saw more of the same, however. Madueke managed to hold Mykolenko off and Pickford had to be alive at his near post to divert his effort wide and Branthwaite made a key intervention from a corner, rising above Jackson as the striker tried to connect with the dangerous delivery from the Chelsea right.

But Everton belatedly found some momentum after the hour mark, with Harrison doing well to stave off his marker and play in Beto but Sanchez was equal to the former Udinese man’s wicked strike and the keeper was fortunate shortly afterwards that Idrissa Gueye’s crisp volley was despatched down his throat rather than either side of the goalkeeper.

The Blues rode their luck somewhat as Caicedo was given the freedom to drive out of his own half and past four grey shirts before shooting wide, Madueke also advanced unchallenged to force a fingertip save from Pickford and Cucurella was allowed to head a loose ball in the box goal-wards that the keeper caught under his crossbar.

Chelsea would have the ball in the net again with five minutes left after Everton had coughed up possession far too easily on an attack of their own but Jackson had been in an offside before Pickford spilled Cucurella’s raking effort into his path and that left the match within the Toffees’ reach.

And they would get one more chance three minutes from the end when Alcaraz burst to the byline and cut the ball back into the six-yard box for the arriving McNeil. The winger got enough on the ball to prompt a reflex save from Sanchez but any more conviction with his volley would surely have resulted in another dramatic late equaliser.

So the wait to end a miserable record at Stamford Bridge goes on and, in all honesty, it never looked like 31 years of misery here was going to end for Everton this afternoon. Once again, Moyes will have learned plenty — O’Brien impressed alongside Branthwaite and Alcaraz once more proved his worth — although given how many players could potentially leave this summer, the more vexing question might be who has demonstrated in recent weeks that they deserve to stay and can be part of a more successful Blues team next season.

Because with just one win in their last nine, Everton appear to have reverted to type since the initial bounce following Moyes’s appointment in January. Granted, this has been a particularly tough five-game run against teams currently in the top six of the Premier League and the onus must now be on finishing the campaign strongly and to finish as high up the table as possible, starting with the home clash with relegated Ipswich next weekend.