Chelsea 1 – 0 Everton
Everton suffered a 1-0 loss to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon following a languid performance. Nicolas Jackson scored the only goal of the match following a turnover in possession in the visitors’ half.
David Moyes’ side showed little in the way of creativity or spark for much of the first half. They also seemed pretty content with letting the opposition dominate most of the possession.
Chelsea broke the deadlock just minutes before the half-hour mark after Beto gave away possession from a goal-kick. Enzo Fernandez fed the recovered ball to Nicolas Jackson and with the Everton defence out of shape, he beat Jordan Pickford at his far corner.
Speaking on the mistake from Beto where he failed to hold up and release the ball quicker before losing it to Trevor Chalobah, David Moyes said, “You see it in football all the time.
“We played the ball into the centre-forward’s feet, he does not retain possession and the opposition go on and score. We don’t accept it but the modern game sees lots of players do it. We are trying to play better and these are the things we need to be better at.”
The Toffees’ performance got better in the second half after the on-loan Carlos Alcaraz came on for Iliman Ndiaye just after half-time. Ndiaye, who often relieves the side with his creativity, had a frustrating afternoon and had just 16 touches and two failed take-ons.
Alcaraz injected pace and directness in the final third while Dwight McNeil had a glorious chance but was denied by a strong save from Robert Sanchez.
“We were perhaps fortunate to only be 1-0 at half-time but we stuck at it, grew into the game and played very well in the second half. We were just lacking quality to get a finish on the end of some of our play,” Moyes said about his side’s overall performance.
“The subs made a big difference. It looked like we had more energy and were more creative.”
With less than five matches remaining this season and having confirmed safety, fans will feel disappointed with the lack of initiative from the Toffees for most of the game. After all, Everton don’t have anything to lose.