Everton vs Chelsea: Not a Masterclass in Defence - But Loads of Fun

Update: They kissed & made up

Well, that was a bit of fun, wasn’t it?! I feel pretty confident in saying that NO ONE saw that coming. Goodison Park normally a difficult ground for anyone to go to - Chelsea scoring just 2 goals in their last 3 trips there combined. The only two guarantees were Steven Naismith was going to score — again. And Eto’o was going to score no matter how little time he got against Chelsea.

Like Didier Drogba on the opening day, Diego Costa rose from the dead to feature in the starting lineup. With Torres off to sample some ossobuco and no one in to take his place, it appeared Mourinho didn’t have much choice but to start Costa - injured or not. It took just 36 seconds for any concerns about the ‘injury’ to evaporate. And another 2 minutes for the game to appear fully in Chelsea’s control. 

But after Arsenal battled back against them a week ago, Everton were not prepared to just sit back and let Chelsea park any sort of multi-passenger vehicle. They were also fully prepared to take full advantage of the stellar job that Moss and his assistants did yesterday awarding offside goals and letting Tim Howard’s beard catch a ball just about anywhere he wants.

And all of that in just 45 minutes! There was fear that the second half couldn’t live up to the thrilling first half. Surely Mourinho would just shut up shop and head back to London with three points in hand. Boring, boring Chelsea and all that.

It took over 20 actual minutes before there were any more goals. How did anyone make it through that dark time. But as Hazard’s shot was helped into the net by Diego Costa’s special friend, Seamus Coleman, it all kicked off once again. Costa’s exuberance at Coleman finding the back of the net upset American hero Howard who was so outraged by the matter he chose to Pardew Chelsea’s Azpilicueta. Most referees would deem the meeting of foreheads a moment to pull out a red card. Jonathan Moss proved once again that he is not most referees.

Four goals quickly followed the handbags with just about everyone getting on the scoresheet. I fancied a chance myself but didn’t fancy being headbutted or handled outside the area by Mr. Howard so stayed put. Filipe Luis and his headband were much more deserving of an appearance.

And so the game ended as it began, with the injured Diego Costa finding the back of the net once again and completing a full 90 minutes. A pretty good performance for a pulled hamstring. While Costa is the talk of the town can we all just take a moment to think about how great Mikel and his back heel were that led to that goal?! And I’d thought he’d been brought on to finally shut it down. 

Another outstanding performance from both of Chelsea’s Serbians again. Ivanovic has been one of Chelsea’s most consistent players for the last few seasons, but has recently found a whole other level going forward. He’s always been one to sneak up and often being ahead of any attacking options, but he’s fully embraced the striker within this season. And Matic also getting his first goal - it wasn’t graceful but Howard was obviously too scared of the man to even try and stop it.

First test done and dusted - and now the baited breath hoping players return from international duty injury free begins. Enjoy it people, enjoy it. 

j x