Chelsea’s woeful start to the season continued in the lunchtime kick-off at Goodison Park. Everton demonstrated guile and intelligence in the final 3rd and patience in their build-up which was especially evident in their 3rd goal. As for Chelsea their defensive issues continue and far from keeping a clean sheet, they have failed to concede less than twice in their opening five games. Steven Naismith was the star of the show coming off the bench to bag a perfect hat-trick.
Everton 1-0 Chelsea: Naismith 17′
In the first scene Costa is isolated in trying to apply pressure from the front, Everton easily outnumber him and progress the play. Barry then has acres of space to move forwards into although this is not problematic for Chelsea at the moment as the midfield line is quite well positioned. He thus decides to play the ball wide to Galloway in an attempt to weaken Chelsea’s central focus.
Matic and Mikel have to screen the all-important 10 space (white rectangle) to avoid being penetrated centrally. As Everton play the ball wide they will have to move as a pair to prevent the 10 space opening up. However their movements lacked co-ordination as Mikel pushed up ever so slightly to the right, while Matic remained still, this created the slightest space for Naismith to receive the ball between the lines.
Both Matic and Mikel begin to apply backwards pressure but Naismith loses them with a quick step over, fooling them into thinking he was passing backwards. This bought him a crucial second to provoke the situation and commit Ivanovic by holding onto the ball. This in turn gave Galloway time to pick out his cross into the box and Naismith managed to ghost in escaping the attentions of Matic, Terry and Zouma. From a Chelsea point of view this was a shocking goal to concede, Matic and Zouma were drawn towards the ball too easily when it was played to Galloway and failed to track the run of Naismith. From the outside there appears to have been a lack of communication, it is difficult in such a short space of time but one of Matic or Zouma needed to track Naismith with the other moving out wide to reduce the distance to Ivanovic.
Everton 2-0 Chelsea: Naismith 22′
n the first scene Chelsea are trying to press Lukaku and Kone against the touchline but they, particularly Lukaku, demonstrate fantastic pressing resistance to escape with possession. In trying to press out wide Chelsea have, naturally, under loaded the far side of the pitch which makes it vital that the first wave of pressure wins the ball otherwise the far side of the defence will be vulnerable and understaffed.
Lukaku is intelligent here and commits Mikel by not releasing the ball too early, this forces Mikel to leave his central position thus creating the large space for Barkley in front of Chelsea’s defence, who Lukaku slides the ball into beyond the advancing Mikel. As for Chelsea they are still suffering the inevitable effects of a failed press which left 3 players (Hazard, Azpilicueta and Matic) out of the game.
Barkley then quickly pops it off to Naismith who also enjoys a lot of space in front of Chelsea’s defence. With no danger directly behind him, Ivanovic could and should have closed Naismith down quicker to try and prevent the shot. However the real issue here was the failed press from Hazard (who was half-hearted), Matic and Azpilicueta who were beaten too easily on the flank and taken out of the game.
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