Everton have lifted themselves into an unlikely Europa League push after surviving wave after wave of Chelsea attacks in the first half to defeat the london club 2-0. Goals by Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson gave the Merseyside clubs a clean sweep over their London counterparts after Liverpool defeated Fulham at Craven Cottage 1-2 earlier on in the day. The win lifts them up to 11th in the league, but more importantly only 4 points behind 7th place Wolves, who currently occupy the final Europa League spot. For Chelsea, it's yet more doom and gloom as Maurizio Sarri's reign looks closer and closer to ending prematurely.
This game was very much one of two halves, as Chelsea dominated the opening exchanges. Eden Hazard was denied by Jordan Pickford in the 6th minute, in what turned out to be a busy afternoon for the England goalkeeper. Hazard then hit the post a minute later, before Gonzalo Higuain had an effort saved by Pickford. Chelsea continued to push forward and create chances, but lacked the end product they possesed in the battering of Dynamo Kiev in the week.
Eventually Pedro did put the ball in the back of the net in the 43rd minute, yet the linesman deemed it to be offside and so the scores remained level going into half time. Chelsea's dominance saw them have 66% possession in the first half as well as registering 10 shots to Everton's 3, however, the scoreline is the only important statistic and that remained 0-0.
Marco Silva's team talk must have mentioned this as Everton came out as a totally different side in the second half, almost immediately, Lucas Digne supplied a magnificent ball into the Chelsea box, unfortunately for the home side, Bernard just couldn't quite stretch out enough, Andre Gomes then had a fantastic effort saved well by Kepa Arrizabalaga in the 47th minute, before Richarlison gave the hosts the lead in the 49th minute, with a simple finish from 3 yards out.
Chelsea were never really able to respond to this and Higuain was once again a missing man for Chelsea, as they looked to muster up some kind of response. They did have a couple of chances through N'golo Kante and Hazard, but they continued to fail to break their duck in front of goal. Sarri then brought on Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Olivier Giroud, two of the stars from the week's destruction of Dynamo Kiev, as he looked to respond positively to going behind.
But in fact it was Everton who responded better, with Richarlison earning a penalty sloppily given away by Marcos Alonso. Sigurdsson's effort was brilliantly saved by Kepa, but the rebound went straight back to the Iceland international who calmly slotted home. It could've got even worse for Chelsea as Theo Walcott, just seconds after replacing Bernard, almost buried his chance into the bottom right corner.
Chelsea brought on Callum Hudson-Odoi for Jorginho in a desperate attempt to get more men forward, which ultimately proved to be unsuccessful. They did push forward continuously in the last 15 minutes, but they couldn't manage to break the Everton defence. The win lifted spirits in Merseyside as Marco Silva looks to regain control, however, it appears more and more likely that Maurizio Sarri will ultimately lose his battle to remain in charge of the London club.