Pedro Neto scored his first ever Premier League brace to secure three points for Chelsea on the road. Re-live this clash with our Everton vs Chelsea stats page.
Pedro Neto‘s second-half brace secured Chelsea a 2-0 win over Everton, whose unbeaten start to the Premier League season came to an end.
An entertaining first half did not result in any goals, though Moisés Caicedo hit the woodwork with a stunning volley, and Neto was the star in a dominant Chelsea showing after the break.
The Portuguese scored within the first minute of the second half, and then secured all three points in the 90th minute, profiting from some poor Everton defending.
The hosts started well, with Emiliano Martínez holding onto Merlin Röhl‘s drilled effort, before getting fully behind Thierno Barry‘s glancing header on the set-piece.
Jack Grealish‘s bouncing volley then needed to be tipped over the bar before Vitalii Mykolenko skilfully opened up space to tee up Barry, who could only poke at Martínez on the turn.
After a couple of flashpoints, Chelsea finished the first half on top, with Caicedo smacking a powerful strike against the crossbar while unmarked from a corner.
And Maxence Lacroix got in front of his marker on another set-piece just before half-time, but his flicked header was cleared off the line by Harrison Armstrong.
Chelsea made a trademark fast start after the break, though, with Morgan Rogers linking up well with Jorrel Hato on the left, but the deflected cross was turned home by Neto.
Rogers continued to cause problems, with his first-time effort blocked by Rohl before Palmer attempted to catch Pickford out from the edge of the box, but the ball ended up in the stands.
Martinez was stretchered off in the 75th minute with a head injury following a clash with Jarrad Branthwaite, and though Everton tried to apply late pressure to substitute Mike Penders, they were instead almost caught out at the other end as Pickford had to make himself big to deny João Pedro following a Palmer-led counter-attack.
Chelsea eventually breached Everton’s defence again ahead of a lengthy 11 minutes of stoppage time. Jordan Henderson‘s free-kick hit the wall, but the Toffees did not clear their lines, and Neto reacted quickest to slot into the bottom-left corner.
Neto Finds His Groove on Merseyside
Chelsea have not had a lot of joy on their recent travels to Everton, winning just one of their previous nine such Premier League games (D2 L6) prior to this one, and they lost their first match at Hill Dickinson Stadium 3-0 last season.
However, Xabi Alonso’s side made it back-to-back league wins, scoring as many goals on Saturday as they did in their last nine visits, though they had to ride their luck at times, especially in the first half.
Having netted twice in the opening three minutes against Bournemouth last time out, it was a slow start by Chelsea’s standards, with this being the second-longest they have had to wait for a goal in the Premier League this season.
Tensions were high in the first half, with five yellow cards, though things settled down after the break, helped by Neto’s goal. He has now scored more Premier League goals (12) for Chelsea (76 appearances) than he did for Wolves (111 apps).
This also marked the first time Neto has scored twice in a Premier League game in his 187th appearance in the competition.
But while the goals – and ultimately the win – will please Alonso, it is their defensive work that will bring him the most joy as they kept their first Premier League clean sheet since January. They had conceded in each of their 22 Premier League matches beforehand, but finally got their first shutout since a 2-0 home win over Brentford.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Everton vs Chelsea stats from their Premier League meeting at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday 17 October.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find selected Opta facts on the game as well.
Everton vs Chelsea: Post-Match Opta Facts
Chelsea won their first Premier League away game while keeping a clean sheet since last November (2-0 against Burnley).
Chelsea became the third team to score in the opening minute of the second half in consecutive Premier League games after Oldham Athletic (December 1992) and Tottenham Hotspur (May 1993).
Everton failed to score in a Premier League home game for the first time since February (1-0 against Manchester United).
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Premier League Opta Stats
Premier League Opta Stats