England international Cole Palmer showed his importance to Chelsea by scoring the net to help the Blues recover from their difficult run in a 2-0 win over Everton at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer was left out of the squad in midweek’s defeat to Atalanta due to an ongoing groin injury, but he remained fit enough to start against David Moyes’s in-form Everton side, and made an impact from the start in his first start at Stamford Bridge in almost four months.
In the 21st minute, a sharp pass from Maro Gusto left Everton wide open and Palmer took advantage of it, firing a magnificent shot past Jordan Pickford to give Chelsea the lead.
“Cole (Palmer) and I have said many times that we are the better team,” Blues manager Enzo Maresca said. “Unfortunately he missed a lot of games for us, but now he’s back and he’ll definitely help us.”
The goal was a real tonic for Chelsea, who were winless in their last three Premier League games as their season threatened to be derailed ahead of the Christmas period, but Maresca’s side were harsh against Everton, whose last win for Chelsea came in 1994.
After a very good game for Everton, with James Tarkowski heading wide and Jack Grealish having his shot blocked from a narrow angle by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, Gusto set off a sharp counter-attack for the hosts and they went into half-time in the lead.
Cole Palmer gives Chelsea a first-half lead against Everton
Chelsea’s dominance continued after the break, but manager Maresca was not willing to take any chances with Palmer’s fitness and sent him off just before the hour mark after finishing the job.
Everton had a chance to surpass Chelsea if they won. Grealish missed a golden chance to put Everton back into the game, before his free kick was denied by a fine save from Pickford.
The last chance was at Everton, where Robert Sanchez was brought down after Iliman Ndiay hit the post, but Chelsea got back on track with first-half goals from the returning Palmer and Gusto, and did enough to move up to fourth in the Premier League, while manager David Moyes continues to wait for victory at Stamford Bridge.
Maresca: ‘worst 48 hours’ at Chelsea due to lack of support
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Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca surprised the media in his post-match press conference by calling the last 48 hours his worst at the club.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said in his post-match press conference after the win against Everton that he had had the “worst 48 hours” since joining Chelsea.
The Italian player stressed that he was not talking about the fans, but blamed anonymous organizations for not supporting him and his players.
“The last 48 hours have been the worst since I joined the club because not many people supported me and the team,” he said. “Generally.”
Asked if he was talking about the club’s supporters, he added: “I love the fans and we are very happy with them.”
“The response was good.”
After four games without a win, Maresca was pleased with their response to in-form Everton.
He told Sky Sports: “I’m happy. It’s important to win a game after two or three games where we didn’t win. It’s important for the players too. We’re happy.”
“The reaction was good. The players want to win every game. Sometimes they struggle a little bit more, and sometimes they can win the game. At this moment, it was very important for the players to win the game.”
“We missed an opportunity, we have to be clinical.
“The game is always open, but overall I’m happy with the performance.”
The story of the game in terms of statistics…
“The defeat against Everton was a bit unfair”
Everton manager David Moyes told Sky Sports:
“We had some really good moments. We played really well today. We’ve played well on the road (this season) and we played well today as well. I know you can’t say that when you’re down 2-0, but we played well today.”
“Maybe in the last third we needed (a little bit of luck). They were real in those one- or two-second moments and we weren’t as real as we were going into the goal. That was the difference.
“They really did a lot of good things. We played well but in the end we couldn’t get the three points. You can say we did a good job all we want, but we have to get the three points.”
Opta stats: Still waiting for Moyes to win at Stamford Bridge…
Everton manager Moyes has not won in 21 away games against Chelsea in the Premier League (D7 L14). There is no other opponent in this competition that we have played away from so often and never beaten (including 21 games against Liverpool).
The Toffees have conceded and lost eight of their last 10 Premier League games (W2), but have created three big chances in an away game in the competition for the first time since their match against Wolves in August.
Chelsea, on the other hand, ended their three-game winning streak in the Premier League, while no team has kept as many clean sheets as the Blues in this season’s competition (eight games).
