In a season where two of Everton’s worst away records were improved with surprise victories at Old Trafford and Vitality Stadium, hopes were high this weekend that the Blues might break their most persistent hoodoo, the one that has seen them win just once on Chelsea’s turf in the Premier League era.
Sadly, it was not to be in a game that saw them lose to injury their best player of the campaign so far in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with just a quarter of an hour gone and all-too-familiar defensive frailties resurface in what ended up being a routine defeat in this part of the Capital.
And yet, despite the 2-0 scoreline, Everton were left to rue both their failure to execute in the final third and their luck as Jack Grealish spurned a gilt-edged chance to half the deficit with around 20 minutes to go and Iliman Ndiaye rolled a shot off the post late on.
This was a study in the disparity of squad depth and the final ball between the two teams, particularly in the first half when Enzo Maresca’s side got their noses in front through the returning Cole Palmer and then doubled their lead through Malo Gusto with Everton carved open with ease on both occasions
The visitors, meanwhile, had moments of their own but let themselves down with the final ball and had they been able to muster earlier in the second period the spirit and drive they showed in the very late stages, they might have tested the resolve of a Chelsea outfit who, coming into the weekend, had dropped more points from winning positions than any other in the top flight this season.
Travelling with a recent record of four wins from five, Everton could have been confident that they could end the club’s 31-year wait for a victory at Stamford Bridge. Three of those recent triumphs victories had been secured without Idrissa Gueye in the team following his inexplicable melt-down against Manchester United that saw him pick up a red card and three-match suspension.
Moyes opted to restore him to the starting XI for the final time before he departs for the Africa Cup of Nations but the Senegalese made an ignominious return to the side as he was badly exposed for both goals. Dewsbury-Hall’s hugely disappointing injury, meanwhile, added to what could be a month-long selection headache while Gueye and Ndiaye are on international duty and it badly undercut the Toffees’ chances of winning the game.
The two teams had traded early corners during what was an even opening to the contest but the sight of Dewsbury-Hall down on the turf nursing the back of his thigh was an ominous one for the travelling Evertonian contingent. With three goals in his last four outings and a strong case for man of the match in each, the former Chelsea midfielder has emerged as a vital cog in Everton’s attacking machine.
Charly Alcaraz was perhaps unfortunate to have been dropped back to the bench given his recent performances but Dewsbury-Hall’s departure from the fray was always going to be keenly felt and, unfortunately, his Argentine replacement did not have the best of games in his stead.
Everton were behind within six minutes of KDH’s injury but the opener came just after they had been at their most threatening yet. A deep Grealish cross at the other end had been knocked back into the danger area by Jake O’Brien but the ball just wouldn’t fall to a cream jersey in the 19th minute and almost immediately, Ndiaye jinked his way through but choked his shot somewhat and Robert Sanchez made the save.
Largely untroubled by their hosts to that point, the Blues were picked apart with 20 minutes gone. Wesley Fofana was allowed to stroll over the halfway line with the ball to find Gusto and, spotting Palmer’s smart run behind the oblivious Gueye, he in turn picked the England international out with a slide-rule pass to bury a shot past Jordan Pickford.
Alejandro Garnacho hammered wide from the angle shortly afterwards and Everton almost pressed the self-destruct button as they so often have in this fixture a minute later when Alcaraz gifted his compatriot the ball with a horrendous infield pass towards his own box. Thankfully, Pickford rushed out to close the angle and Garnacho fired it the wrong side of the post from Chelsea’s perspective and a few minutes later, the keeper made a comfortable stop to deny Enzo Fernandez’s header.
What followed was Everton’s best spell of the half and signs that they were by no means out of the game despite the weight of history in this fixture. James Tarkowski headed wide at the back post from a James Garner free-kick, Jake O’Brien marauded down the right wing and centred for Ndiaye but his shot was blocked at close quarters before Gueye popped up on the overlap six minutes before the break. He fizzed the ball across the face of goal but Sanchez got a crucial touch on the ball with his glove to divert the ball between Thierno Barry’s legs as the striker barrelled in to meet it.
As half-time approached, two incidents either side of the 45-minute mark perhaps decided the outcome. Profiting from a fortunate bounce of the ball, Grealish had time and space to drive towards Sanchez and slip it square to Gueye or Ndiaye in front of goal but he tried to flick it over the advancing keeper instead and the chance was lost.
Then, after Gusto had tested Pickford with an effort from distance, Chelsea counter-attacked once more down their right with Pedro Neto who skinned Vitalii Mykolenko for pace and cut the ball back to Gusto whose run was completely unchecked by Gueye.
If it felt at the halfway stage that the situation was irretrievable against a team of Chelsea’s quality, it was perhaps evident in Everton’s posture for the first 20-odd minutes of the second half. Garnacho had a chance to extend the advantage early when he arrived at the back post but he again missed the target and he scooped over the crossbar in the 55th minute having stolen in behind O’Brien for another opportunity.
Moyes’s men would get their chances, though, to work their way back into it and two of them fell to Grealish. O’Brien was the source of another dangerous cross midway through the half but Sanchez finger-tipped the on-loan star’s header over.
Five minutes later, Alcaraz’s whipped ball in from the right flashed across Sanchez’s goal but Grealish somehow planted it wide with the outside of his boot with the goal at his mercy.
Then, after Pickford had turned Reece James’s free-kick over his bar, Ndiaye came as close as Everton would come to finding the net with three minutes left of the 90. Another mesmerising run took him to the edge if the area where he engineered space for a shot but though he guided it wide of the keeper, it bounced agonisingly back off the face of the post.
Alcaraz had one more opening a couple of minutes later when Mykolenko drove to the byline and cut it back but Trevoh Chalobah lunged to make the block and send the evenrtual strike wide for a corner.
Just as after the defeat to Newcastle at end of last month, it feels as though Evertonian optimism that the team might over-deliver on expectations this season has been dealt a reality check. At the heart of it is a lack of depth and quality in key areas in Moyes’s squad that will test the manager in the coming weeks during AFCoN and for as long as Dewsbury-Hall is absent and if concerns over Grealish's hamstring become reality.
If he can remain fit, much of the onus will be on Grealish to grow his influence across any given 90 minutes while the likes of Alcaraz, Dwight McNeil and Tyler Dibling will get chances to stake their claims but it’s hard not to feel that any prospect of the Toffees causing a surprise this season and troubling the European places rests on what, if anything, they can do in the transfer market to address clear weaknesses at fullback and up front.