Chelsea 2-0 EvertonEverton’s unbeaten start to the 2017/18 season is over after Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners on Sunday afternoon.
In all competitions, the Toffees embarked on a promising run of six games without losing - but that sequence ended as the Club’s Premier League hoodoo at Stamford Bridge continued.
Not since Paul Rideout’s winner in November 1994 had Everton taken maximum points from a trip to Chelsea - and that wait for a victory will extend into a 24th season as first-half goals from Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Morata proved the difference.
Three days after his goalscoring heroics in Split, Gylfi Sigurdsson was handed his first Premier League start for Everton. The loss of Morgan Schneiderlin through suspension was offset by a return from injury for Idrissa Gana Gueye and Sandro Ramirez. Both players were thrown straight back into the starting line-up by Ronald Koeman.
The trip to Stamford Bridge was Everton’s third away match in the space of six days, with Koeman admitting in his pre-match interview that the schedule had forced him to “use a bit more rotation than normal” with his squad.
Everton matched up in a similar formation to that of their opponents, playing three in defence with wing-backs. Mason Holgate, one of the players also recalled to the team, started enthusiastically in his duel with Marcos Alonso, scorer of both goals in Chelsea’s win over Tottenham a week earlier.
The hosts began on the front foot and, inside the opening quarter of an hour, Jordan Pickford had to make low saves to deny David Luiz and Pedro, with the latter also seeing an ambitious bicycle kick fly just over the target.
Chelsea continued to occupy the majority of possession and the Londoners struck the breakthrough goal on 26 minutes. Fabregas played a give-and-go with Alvaro Morata on the edge of the area and the Spaniard was able to prod his angled finish into the bottom corner, out of Pickford’s reach.
Everton were unable to create much in the final third during the first half and shortly after Sigurdsson dragged a left-footed attempt wide from 20 yards, Chelsea went two goals ahead.
Morata escaped inside the area and was well-placed to nod in Cesar Azpilicueta’s right-winged cross five minutes before the interval.
Koeman altered Everton’s central midfield at the break, introducing Muhamed Besic for Tom Davies.
There was a sight of goal for Sandro in the opening moments of the second half but the summer signing scuffed his shot having been set free by Wayne Rooney.
Likewise, Pedro could have done better with his finish at the opposite end of the pitch when he played the ball through Sigurdsson’s legs, only to thrash his shot into the side-netting. Victor Moses, from a similar area, then fired straight at Pickford.
With less than half an hour remaining, Koeman opted for a change in attack. Calvert-Lewin, who had performed admirably in the Blues’ opening two league matches of the season, replaced Sandro as the focal point up front.
The former Sheffield United man, who had received his first call-up to the England Under-21s squad days earlier, worked tirelessly in his 30-minute cameo but ultimately he nor any of his Blues teammates could conjure a way back into the game for the Toffees.
Late on, Ashley Williams hooked effort onto the roof of the net and then glanced a header wide as, for the first time this campaign, Everton finished a game without scoring.
The vast majority of the Blues first-team squad will now head away on international duty before reconvening in September, ready for high-profile Premier League fixtures against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, plus the start of the Club quest in the Carabao Cup and Europa League group stages.
Everton FC