We round-up the report from the national media after Everton go down to a battling 2-0 Premier League defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 13: Head Coach David Moyes of Everton during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Everton at Stamford Bridge on December 13, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)
David Moyes saw his Everton side play well but miss a host of chances in their 2-0 defeat at Chelsea
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Everton failed to add Chelsea to their list of vanquished foes despite a spirited display. The Blues were undone by first-half goals from Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto - both of which followed the withdrawal of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with what looked like a potential hamstring issue.
Everton retained a threat between those goals and in the second half and David Moyes was left with his head in his hands as he and the rest of the stadium questioned how his side did not score at Stamford Bridge.
While Palmer’s goal in front of England manager Thomas Tuchel and Enzo Maresca’s unexpected comments after that game - in which he stated the previous 48 hours had been the worst of his Chelsea career without clarifying why - dominated the coverage of the match, here is what the national media said about the Blues' display.
In the Guardian, Jonathan Wilson reflected that Everton had chances - opportunities that could have made this a different game had they been taken. He wrote: “They [Chelsea] won easily, could have won more easily, and yet also had spells in which the game threatened to slip from their grasp… If one chance had been taken, the mood might have changed and it might have been a different story.
“But that’s the nature of this Chelsea: for all their glitter, for all they are capable of challenging the very best, there is a brittleness to them. And that, ultimately, will probably prevent them winning the very biggest titles.”
In the Mail, Riath Al-Sammarai also bemoaned the missed chances that cost the Blues the opportunity to really test the fragility of Chelsea: “The inconsistencies of such a young squad have been shown up by the weakening of their title charge in recent weeks, but this was a big win against an Everton side that arrived with four wins in five.
“Had David Moyes's side shown some greater quality in front of goal, they might have got something out of this one, too, but they let Chelsea escape. For that, Maresca will reserve special praise for Malo Gusto. He made the first goal for Palmer and claimed the second one for himself. He was excellent.”
In an outlook that was dominated by reporting on the match from a Chelsea perspective, Matt Law went so far as to say the game would have been different had Everton had a different centre forward.
Running through the Blues’ missed opportunities, he wrote in the Telegraph: “Everton threatened on several occasions and went closest with three minutes remaining when Iliman Ndiaye shot past Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez, but the ball rebounded off the inside of a post to safety.
“James Tarkowski heded wide at the back post and Thierno Barry failed to convert a great ball across the six-yard box from Idrissa Gueye. The ball went through Barry’s legs and Everton would surely have scored at least one goal if they had a decent centre-forward.
“Jack Grealish, like Palmer, would have hoped to catch the eye of Tuchel, but he could not beat Sánchez from a tight angle after cutting in from the left. He also had a header tipped over the crossbar and then somehow steered the ball wide with the entire goal to aim at from Carlos Alcaraz’s cross.”
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Peter Rutzeler came the closest to offering Everton genuine praise. He wrote in the Times: “This fixture, against a smart Everton side, had all the hallmarks of a Chelsea winter slip-up. The league’s oldest team, who have won the most duels this season and are building some fine mid-season momentum, against the league’s youngest, who have a habit of shrinking when expected to win.
“Not so here, although Everton will be perplexed at how they did not at least score once at Stamford Bridge… For Everton, this was a very frustrating trip to west London, given the charmed life led by the Chelsea goal despite many promising moments.”
Rutzeler referenced the imminent loss of Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye as they depart to the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal. Those absences, combined with the injury suffered by Dewsbury-Hall, were covered in the ECHO, which concluded: “The away end gave the ultimate judgement on this performance, and on the state of play as Everton head into a busy period without Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye, who will depart for the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday, and with new fears over the fitness of Dewsbury-Hall.
"While the game looked lost in the final minutes it was that corner of Stamford Bridge that was loudest - a rigging endorsement of a team that has brought them joy and jubilation in strange places this season, even if this old ground was indeed a bridge too far.”