Everton - Chelsea Recap

 

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Everton defeated Chelsea today, 1-0, at Goodison Park. It was the first true home game for the Toffees, as 2,000 fans were allowed to be in attendance. It's fair to say that the fans played a role in today's victory. They were loud and made their presence known to the Chelsea side. 

The game was very tight in the early minutes. Richarlison had a prime opportunity in the 6th minute for Everton, but he was unable to get much on the shot. The only goal of the evening was scored by Gylfi Sigurdsson on a penalty kick in the 22nd minute. Jordan Pickford hit an excellent longball that was played into the box by Everton's center forward, Dominic Calvert-Lewin. DCL dribbled the ball and was interfered with by Chelsea's goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy. Mendy's mistake led to a penalty, which Sigurdsson buried. 

Reece James created a number of scoring chances for Chelsea, but was unable to score on any of them. He was unlucky to hit the post on a few occasions. Pickford made some great saves on James and Kurt Zouma to keep the score at 1-0 in the first half. Mason Mount just hit the post on an excellent chance in the second half that would've tied the game. Even though Chelsea held possession for the majority of the match, they never felt that threatening. 

Everton's backline was phenomenal today. Carlo Ancelotti opted to play 4 centrebacks in Mason Holgate, Yerry Mina, Michael Keane, and Ben Godfrey. Holgate and Godfrey were utilized as fullbacks and were a big improvement over Fabian Delph from last weekend. They got up the field effectively and did a good job limiting Chelsea's movement up the wings. Michael Keane had a typical Michael Keane performance. He was able to clear a bunch of crosses from Chelsea's wide players and didn't make any mistakes. Mina had a strong game as well. He had a mistake in the opening minutes of the match, but settled in to play fine defense for the reminder of the 90 minutes. My Man of the Match has to be Gylfi Sigurdsson. He was the only player to score today and he was fantastic playing his natural position. Hopefully he is able to maintain this form in the coming weeks.  

This was a huge win for Everton. It brings them to within one point of a Champions League position for now. Especially after only getting 4 points out of a run of fixtures against Fulham, Leeds, and Burnley, getting 3 out of Chelsea is shocking. Doing it without their best player in James Rodriguez is even more insane. They meet Leicester City on Wednesday afternoon in another big match for Everton.