Everton 3 Chelsea 0
Everton’s best game at the new stadium. We’ve been waiting for a statement game at the Hill Dickinson from David Moyes side all season and we’ve finally got it. Everton took advantage of a Chelsea side shot for confidence at the minute under Liam Rosenior and in the end had a pretty easy game taking apart a horrific Chelsea defence, Beto scored his first goal of the game in the 33rd minute as James Garner played a brilliant pass in behind Wesley Fofana for Beto who dinked the ball over the oncoming Robert Sanchez to give Everton a 1-0 lead. Chelsea offered very little in the first half as the forward players argued amongst themselves after every attack throwing their arms up when they lost the ball showing just how deep the problems are at Chelsea at the minute, the second goal was horrifying from a Chelsea perspective giving the ball away in the midfield to Idrissa Gueye who was excellent through the game driving to the Chelsea box and finding Beto again who’s shot squirmed underneath Robert Sanchez to put Everton 2-0 up in the 63rd minute. The nail in the Chelsea coffin was put in by Ndiaye who got on the end of Beto’s header and faced Caicedo 1 v 1 in the box eventually wrapping a beauty into the top corner to put the icing on the cake at the end of a brilliant game for Everton at the Hill Dickinson.
A Drogba-esque performance from Beto. Chelsea fans might have thought that Drogba returned for one match in an Everton shirt tonight and they wouldn’t have been far off with the way Beto played tonight, he’s not had a brilliant season for Everton so far but he ran Chelsea ragged tonight especially Wesley Fofana who you could say was at fault for all three goals. Beto took the first goal well after running in behind which isn’t his strong suit but with the space that Chelsea give in behind I think just about every striker in the league could get in behind, the second goal was a disgrace as far as Chelsea are concerned with Wesley Fofana just leaving Beto in the box to have a free shot at Sanchez in the net who let the ball go straight through him into the net. Beto then played his part in the 3rd goal winning the flick on over you guessed it Wesley Fofana to give Ndiaye a 1 v 1 up against Caicedo in the box, overall a true strikers performance from Beto giving Everton a well-deserved three points on the day.
What is going on at Chelsea? No goals in the last three games for Chelsea along with shipping nine at the other end sees Chelsea in free-fall under Liam Rosenior with no sign of it turning around any time soon, Chelsea have certainly looked more open at the back under Rosenior but that has seen them look more dangerous going forward with the resurgence of Joao Pedro in the last few months. It seems as though once Joao Pedro’s form dropped off there was no one to step up to help the team score more goals, players like Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho, Liam Delap have been terrible this season and have been a big part as to why Chelsea find themselves in 6th. The defence is a shambles at the minute with Wesley Fofana putting in a hall of shame performance at the back along with Robert Sanchez who was terrible in goal, with the fixtures they have remaining I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chelsea in the Europa League next season, what a disaster.
How high can Everton finish this season? This win puts Everton in 8th only two points behind Chelsea in 6th and level on points with Brentford in 7th, why can’t Everton aim for a top six finish this season seeing as they are only focussing on the league for the remainder of the season. Everton have some top players in their team, I’m a big fan of James Garner and have followed him from when he was in the youth teams at United, getting promoted with Nottingham Forest and now getting called up for the England squad for the upcoming international games, he’s had a brilliant season and is well deserving of a World Cup call-up in the summer. Illiman Ndiaye is the jewel in the crown at Everton and the goal today was pure magic, we’ll see whether or not Everton can keep him long term but if they qualify for Europe next season he might fancy another year at Everton for next season. We know how good Everton can be defensively under David Moyes with Keane and Tarkowski at the centre making it a hard game for any striker going against them, can Moyes bring Everton back to Europe next season? We’ll see over the next two months.
Chelsea ain’t making top 4/5 this season. I think that’s it for Chelsea in their hopes of getting Champions League football for next season in my opinion, they just look a million miles away from being an actual competent football team and with their fixtures remaining I think the task is too much. Their next three fixtures in the league are Man City(H), Man United(H) and Brighton(A), on top of that they still have Liverpool to play at Anfield and with the way Chelsea are playing at the minute I struggle to see them getting enough points to finish above the like of Liverpool, Villa and United. The FA Cup might become priority for Chelsea over the next few weeks with Port Vale at Stamford Bridge in the quarter-finals when they comeback from the international break, can Rosenior bring a trophy back to Stamford Bridge to appease the supporters? I’m not so sure.