)This was the evening that Bramley-Moore Dock had been waiting for. Yes, the last-gasp win over Crystal Palace was the first truly ecstatic moment Everton fans had enjoyed in the new stadium and the 3-0 triumph over Nottingham Forest had arguably been the team’s most complete performance prior to today. But a big occasion under the lights by the waterfront with a victory to match over the one of the media darling clubs… that was what had been missing.
Today, Evertonians got it — and how! On the occasion of Premier League match number 747 for David Moyes as a manager, Hill Dickinson Stadium truly got its lift-off as the Blues’ home 10 months after they left Goodison Park.
From the blue smoke shrouded coach welcome that evoked memories of another, more desperate home clash with Chelsea from yesteryear to the febrile atmosphere inside the Toffees’ near 53,000-seater on the banks of the royal blue Mersey and the thumping victory, this was proper Everton.
And, remarkably, it brought them to within two points of their more fancied opponents, who currently sit in the Europa League qualification place of sixth, and within three of neighbours, Liverpool, with the first Merseyside derby at the Docks still to come next month.
The media talk will, no doubt, be all about Chelsea and their struggles under Liam Rosenior since his honeymoon period at Stamford Bridge evaporated but Everton, with the undercurrent of seething injustice in the crowd at the leniency of the punishment the West Londoners received from the Premier League for breaking the rules, put on a terrific display.
Dogged and indefatigable without the ball, they frustrated the visitors at one end and harried them into mistakes at the other. And when things didn’t quite fall the Blues’ way from their diligent pressing, James Garner marked the week of his first England call-up by carving Chelsea open with a superb assist for Beto to give them a half-time lead.
The Portuguese-born striker doubled his tally in the second period and Iliman Ndiaye put a bow on the occasion with a sublime third as Everton won back-to-back home matches for the first time this season in emphatic fashion.
Last weekend’s defeat at Arsenal was cruel given the nature of the Toffees’ performance which deserved much more than a late 2-0 defeat but, credit to Moyes and his charges, they simply carried the spirit and industry they had showed at the Emirates into what was a huge game by the waterfront.
They refused to let Chelsea settle, ceding the bulk of possession but buzzing around the visitors’ back line like flies as they tried to play out from the back. Beto forced an early mistake from Robert Sanchez, tackling him as he dithered with a pass and almost seizing on the loose ball before the goalkeeper toed it away to a team-mate who cleared his lines.
The striker then teed up a chance for Garner but his left-foot effort was blocked on its way to goal before Rosenior’s men started to exert some concerted pressure. James Tarkowski, restored to the team after missing the Arsenal defeat with a minor hamstring complaint, had to make two important blocks in front of his own goal amid a moment of uncharacteristic panic in the Everton defence.
Whatever momentum Chelsea had been trying to establish was broken in the 33rd minute, however, when Garner picked up the ball in the centre-circle and, spotting Beto’s movement, threaded a perfect ball through the defence for the No 9 to stride ahead of Wesley Fofana and lift it over the advancing Sanchez into the net.
It was no more than the Toffees deserved but they had to survive another scare before half-time to ensure they went into the mid-way stage ahead. Jordan Pickford initially flapped at a corner after Tarkowski had blocked Malo Gusto’s attempted cross behind but the England star recovered brilliantly to make another of his stunning reflex saves to palm Enzo Fernández’s close-range half-volley over his crossbar.
If the expanse of 45-plus minutes felt like an eternity coming out of the break, Everton settled the nerves of the home faithful to a degree by continuing in the same mode in which they played the first half.
Beto almost nipped in to meet a Tarkowski knock-down following a corner and Sanchez had to be careful not to carry Garner’s in-swinging free-kick over his line a few minutes later, but after Pickford finger-tipped another Fernández wide at full stretch, Everton doubled their lead.
Displaying his superb reading of the game, Idrissa Gueye stepped in to intercept an Andrey Santos pass aimed for Marc Cucurella before bombing forward into space, waiting for Beto to make a run off the shoulder of his marker. When he slipped the ball in, the Guinea-Bissau international hammered a right-foot shot that bobbled through Sanchez’s legs and crept in, Everton’s players wheeling away in delight before referee Sam Barrott had time to signal confirmation of the goal from the goal-line decision system.
Seeking to try and reverse the tide, Rosenior threw on Estevao and for spells it looked as though the Brazilian might be the only player other than Fernández capable of causing Everton any problems. Pickford had had to come smartly off his line to deny the latter in the 69th minute, preserving the 100th clean sheet of his time with the Blues, and then watch almost helplessly as the former’s corner bounced off the face of his crossbar.
However, with the Londoners pushing in vain to get a foothold, Everton’s threat lay on the counter-attack, with Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall both firing too close to Sanchez at the end of quick breakaways in the final 20 minutes.
In between, though, Ndiaye had wrapped things up beautifully. Beto rose to nod on Pickford’s raking ball forward, with it dropping to Ndiaye outside the Chelsea box. He danced wide of Moises Caicedo to make space for a shot and then caressed the ball into the top corner with a sumptuous effort.
There was a late chance for substitute Tim Iroegbunam who powered his way towards goal near the byline and forced one last save from Sanchez but that would merely have been extra garnish on an already fabulous afternoon in L3.
With seven games to go, Everton not only find themselves in the mix for any of the three Continental competitions, crucially they have momentum while many of the teams around them are faltering somewhat. Certainly, two of the three teams immediately above them, Chelsea and Liverpool, are going through bad moments in their seasons, with big question marks over their respective managers while Brentford have drawn their last three.
It makes the Blues' next game at the Gtech Stadium in three weeks’ time another massive fixture in the race for Europe while that all-Mersey affair that will follow on 19th April has all the makings of an equally pivotal occasion. Who’d have thought that at various times this season when a season of stable mid-table mediocrity felt like the summit of our ambitions?