Nothing more than the fact that the players who attempted to prevent Cole Palmer from scoring were wearing blue, on a night when Jordan Pickford’s passing became worse and Jarrad Branthwaite’s injury added to Sean Dyche’s despair, captured the magnitude of Everton’s collapse.
Even Chelsea’s most convincing Premier League victory of the year had to include a reminder of their immaturity. As anyone would have been confused when Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke attempted to take away Palmer’s second hat-trick in as many home games, thus bringing his total for his first season in West London to 20 goals and nine assists.
As the attacker made it 5-0, Palmer was chasing his fourth, and Mauricio Pochettino, whose team is three points off sixth place, saw that things were back to normal. The attention might return to Chelsea’s energy and Everton’s lackluster showing.
With his first senior goal to cap off the humiliation, Alfie Gilchrist put Everton two points above the drop zone and put them in danger.
Pre-match bulletins from Chelsea centered, first, on injuries added to an already extensive list and, second as is customary these days, on information gleaned from their year-end financial statements.
Undoubtedly, the most concerning aspect involved a loss of £90.1 million; however, some solace was provided by the transfer of ownership of a few hotels from one club-affiliated organization to another.
Everton, who appealed their most recent point deduction on Monday, can only be amazed at such resourcefulness.
Maybe that is why they seemed to be motivated by a feeling of unfairness when they started this game. BPowered by a boisterous, irate away end that jeered at the Premier League anthem prior to kickoff, Everton got off to an enterprising start and appeared to be putting Chelsea on their heels early on.
In the tenth minute, Séamus Coleman got past Marc Cucurella, and Chelsea should have taken the lead, but Beto nailed the right-back’s strong crossover from three yards out. Dwight McNeil forced Malo Gusto to give up an unnecessary corner.
