• Chelsea have recovered a little since they were dismantled by both Manchester clubs in February
• Chelsea’s performances this season have caused people to ask just how much they care for their Italian coach.
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Here, at last, was a glimpse of what Everton could be under Marco Silva. Smart aggressive, energetic and inventive; not to mention clinical. They only managed it for half an hour but against this inconsistent and maddening Chelsea team, it was enough.
So this was a big win for Silva, maybe his biggest of his up and down first season at Everton. He was brought to lift people from their seats like this. There has not been nearly enough of it over the course of the year but here his team recovered from a flat first half to overrun Chelsea.
Really poor for 45 minutes, Everton improved beyond recognition and scored twice – through Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson – in the space of 25 minutes to remind us just what an atmospheric place Goodison Park can be when the home team’s blood is up.
For Chelsea and their coach Maurizio Sarri, it was all greatly disappointing and a little familiar.
Chelsea have recovered a little since they were dismantled by both Manchester clubs in February. Indeed, in the first half, they were the better team by a distance, completely controlling the game.
But once Everton emerged for the second period seemingly determined to show themselves in a better light, Chelsea could not cope and this does not say terribly much for their depths of reserve. Some of Chelsea’s performances this season have caused people to ask just how much they care for their Italian coach. This was not one of those days but, still, their reaction to falling behind was not good enough.
This was an opportunity to move level on points with Arsenal in fourth place and that they ultimately failed by such a distance suggests this is a group of players missing something very important as the tussle for the Champions League places intensifies.
It is probably stretching things to say that Chelsea could have been out of sight by half-time but they certainly should have been ahead. Everton were desperately flat – short of the tempo and go-forward they were to find later on – and their opponents had a number of opportunities to finish the game almost before it had properly started.
It was the returning Ross Barkley – booed at every turn by the Everton fans – and Eden Hazard who were the most consistent threats for Chelsea at this stage. Barkley was taken off midway through the second half – a typically strange decision by Sarri – but for the first half hour, he was prompting Chelsea intelligently with some sharp and quick forward passing.
Three times in the first ten minutes, Chelsea threatened. Hazard cut inside to have a shot saved by Jordan Pickford and then hit the foot of the England goalkeeper’s left-hand post from 18 yards after a neat exchange of passes between Barkley and the generally underwhelming Gonzalo Higuain.
Everton central defender Yerry Mina stopped Higuain his tracks with a timely tackle soon after but it seemed inevitable that Chelsea would break through before long.
Everton’s threat at the other end was sporadic. A shot over from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and then a low one from Bernard was as good as it got at that stage and had Pedro not miscued so badly with the goal at his mercy as half-time approached, Chelsea would have had the lead their progressive, controlled football had deserved.
Everton teams never used to play like this. At the very least they would present a physical and emotional challenge to opponents on their own turf.
Maybe Silva reminded them of this at half-time. Maybe tea cups flow or a hairdryer scorched. Whatever happened, it worked. The home team were unrecognisable after the interval and so, as a result, were Chelsea. Prior to the break, Everton had not won a single corner. They won two in the first five minutes of the second period and from the second one they scored.
Calvert-Lewin won the aerial battle to head powerfully down and when Kepa parried, Richarlison followed up to head Everton into what still felt like an unlikely lead in the 49th minute. Subsequently, Silva’s team were faster to every ball and also began to use the width of the pitch. Both things helped their cause.
Pickford — who had a good afternoon after his horrors at Newcastle — saved well from Higuain and Barkley had a shot blocked but the crucial second goal went Everton’s way.
Seamus Coleman was blocked in the penalty area in the 70th minute and then, after the ball broke, so was Richarlison. The difference was that the second challenge – from Marco Alonso — was illegal and Sigurdsson drove the rebound into the net after Kepa saved his initial penalty low to his right. Sarri looked resigned to another Premier League failure long before full-time. It is a countenance we are likely to see again before the season is out.