It’s only the third week of the Premier League season, but Chelsea and Everton have produced a clear match of the year candidate. The second half featured six goals, including five in a period of just 11 minutes, with the Blues eventually coming out on top. It finished 6-3, and on the balance of play, the match was closer than the score.
Everton vs. Chelsea: Final score 3-6, the game of the year already?
Chelsea and Everton put on a show at Goodison Park on Saturday, with the Blues eventually prevailing in a 9-goal match.
Early on, it appeared that Everton were in for a beating. Chelsea scored just 30 seconds into the game, then doubled their lead before the 3rd minute was gone. Both goals were a bit controversial, and in the end, the linesman probably got the first one right and the second wrong.
Diego Costa scored the opener, netting his third goal in as many games off a brilliant assist by Cesc Fabregas. Both the pass and Costa's run were timed brilliantly, with the Spanish striker just barely beating Everton's offside trap before finishing past Tim Howard.
The second goal, unlike the first, genuinely was offside, if only by a couple of inches. Branislav Ivanovic was just barely on the wrong side of Phil Jagielka when Ramires played the ball into him, but the linesman believed him to be onside, and the flag stayed down as Ivanovic scored to stun Goodison Park into silence.
Unfortunately for Chelsea and fortunately for the viewing public, everyone was almost robbed of the game of the season in the 8th minute, when Howard deliberately handled outside of his penalty, arguably denying Diego Costa a clear goal-scoring opportunity. He definitely should have been yellow-carded and arguably sent off, but the same linesman that failed to spot Ivanovic’s offside also missed Howard’s handball.
Everton thought they'd pulled one back in the 16th minute when Romelu Lukaku hit the bar off a set piece and Sylvain Distin poked in the rebound, but he was offside and the goal was correctly disallowed. The Toffees did get back into the match before the halftime whistle, though, striking right at the 45-minute mark.
Kevin Mirallas was the scorer, and off a brilliant run and header. Seamus Coleman set it up with a pinpoint perfect cross after the ball was sprayed out to him, allowing Mirallas to head past Thibaut Courtois to give his team some hope heading into the locker room.
The Toffees started the second half strongly, but Chelsea had the first big chance of the half, when Fabregas found Diego Costa with another through ball. He looked likely to score one-on-one with the keeper, but Howard made an impressive kick save.
There was plenty of entertainment to be found, but no truly clear scoring chances until the 67th minute, when the game went absolutely bonkers. Over the next 11 minutes, the two teams would score five goals between them.
Eden Hazard kicked off the absurd scoring run with an aggressive dribbling surge around James McCarthy, leading to an attempted cutback that hit Coleman and bundled into the net. But Everton had an instant answer, with Aidan McGeady finding Steven Naismith for Everton's second. Neither of Chelsea's midfielders tracked the run of Naismith, who had all the time and space in the world to set up his outside of the boot finish in the 69th minute.
Five minutes after that, Nemanja Matic restored Chelsea’s two-goal lead with a stunning left-footed strike from 20 yards that Howard had no chance of saving, but former Blues striker Samuel Eto’o hit back with an excellent header off a free kick two minutes after that, getting Everton back into the game once again.
But sadly for the home fans, Chelsea would go up by two once more, thanks to some lax defending and a very impressive run and finish by Ramires. No one closed down the Brazilian as he played a give-and-go down the right side of the penalty area with Matic, and he poked a close-range finish into the back of the net from a narrow angle to give Chelsea a cushion once again.
Mirallas almost kept the madness going in the 81st minute with a stinging shot from 12 yards that looked destined for the back of the net, but Thibaut Courtois came up with a world class stop, barely getting his fingertips to the ball and tipping it onto the post.
From there, the match calmed down a bit, with Chelsea figuring out how to get a bit better organized. Everton started throwing caution to the wind in the 90th minute, and they paid for it immediately. New Everton signing Muhamed Bešić entered as a sub, and with his first touch, gave the ball away. Diego Costa latched on and went around two defenders, eventually scoring his fourth goal of the season and the sixth on the night.
Everton: Howard, Baines, Distin, Jagielka, Coleman, Barry, McCarthy, McGeady (Eto’o 70’), Naismith, Mirallas, Lukaku (Besic 89’)
Goals: Mirallas (45’), Naismith (69’), Eto’o (76’)
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Matic, Fabregas (Drogba 89’), Willian (Mikel 75’), Hazard (Felipe Luis 83’), Ramires, Costa
Goals: Diego Costa (1’), Ivanovic (3’), Coleman (OG 67’), Matic (74’), Ramires (78’), Costa (90’)
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