Everton’s uncertainty off the field is starting to seep into what had been certainty on it. For six matches they stayed unbeaten – their longest run in 12 years – as David Moyes built a strong, if uninspiring, unit capable of competing for Europe. But that run came to an end against Chelsea, eight days after the owners announced the club was for sale.
A day after The Friedkin Group (TFG) revelation, they let in two dreadful goals in a draw with Hull City, then conceded twice more against Xabi Alonso’s side – more than doubling their tally of goals against this season. There is a sense that the tight-knit environment Moyes fostered is beginning to unravel.
It made for a fascinating Saturday lunchtime spectacle. What happens when the league’s most exciting team meets arguably its dullest? Exciting, of course, does not always mean successful. Chelsea’s six Premier League games had produced 28 goals – 15 for, 13 against. Everton’s had produced only eight – 10 fewer than Chelsea in both columns. A free-flowing, free-scoring front line of João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers versus a defence that, until the owners took a sledgehammer to a steady ship, had been breached fewer than once per game.
This is not to disparage Everton. What Moyes moulded out of a squad that lacked summer investment is impressive. Their highest fee was the £18 million paid to Chelsea for Tyrique George – spare change compared with their nearest rivals, who have made nine figures the going rate. Meanwhile, they sold Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City for £60m among several others, and a late collapse in the deal for Folarin Balogun on deadline day left Moyes with only 18 senior outfield players.
While it is true TFG did bring infrastructural stability after buying the club two years ago – overseeing the move into the new stadium and cleaning up the financial chaos of the Farhad Moshiri era – there always remained a cold detachment from the club and its fans. Dan Friedkin, chairman of the ownership group, had never met Moyes nor attended a match, despite regularly appearing at the Stadio Olimpico, home of the more favoured asset, Roma.
Perhaps the comparative ease of qualifying for the Champions League in Italy made Roma the more attractive prospect to keep. Or the £35m compensation fee owed to Burnley after breaching financial rules prompted fear that the Premier League could become a painfully litigious and expensive place to own a club. Or maybe it was the gradual breakdown in relations with supporters.
When TFG attempted to sell academy star Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest for £40m in the summer – until news leaked and fans threatened revolt – apathy spilled into the kind of toxicity associated with their former owners.
You can see why the fans want to keep Armstrong. His clearance off the line from Maxence Lacroix’s header kept the score goalless in first-half stoppage time, and his discipline, tempo and control would not have looked out of place in Chelsea’s midfield. And why sell a 19-year-old now when the market suggests you let him grow for two or three more years and Chelsea, or an equivalent, will pay two or three times that?
Everton’s issues, though, pale next to Chelsea’s ownership problems. While the two sides have been polar opposites on the pitch this season, off it they are becoming kindred spirits. After years of turmoil, in which the owners were mocked up as clowns and accused of turning the club into a laughing stock, Todd Boehly, who led the takeover consortium, finally stepped aside, handing control to Behdad Eghbali. Can he deliver the success promised four years ago?
Going forward, Chelsea’s players can click into place with unnerving certainty. For the opening goal, Rogers backheeled down the line for Jorrel Hato, who crossed low; Cole Palmer’s near-post run created space at the back where Pedro Neto took a touch and finished. Adding to their entertainment factor, Chelsea have become renowned for scoring early. Five of their goals have come in the opening five minutes of games and now three have arrived in the first four minutes after the restart. Everton nullified that threat in the first half but switched off in the second.
There was a degree of luck to the second goal – a Jordan Henderson free kick hit the wall and dropped to Neto to roll the ball into the far corner – but Chelsea fully deserved the three points. They will, however, be worried about goalkeeper Emi Martínez, who received treatment on the pitch for more than 10 minutes after a collision of heads with Jarrad Branthwaite before being carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
“He left the stadium conscious,” Alonso said. “He’s in the hospital having precautionary tests. We need to wait. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.”
Perhaps most disappointing for Moyes is that they made Chelsea look like a team who arrive at a solid mid-table side dreaming of Europe and comfortably sweep them aside – rather than one that let in eight goals in three games against Leeds, Hull and Brentford. It was Chelsea’s first Premier League clean sheet in 23 matches.
Regardless of the current uncertainty, Everton will be a tantalising prospect for a potential owner – particularly for the US billionaires and hedge funds who would view a perennial top-flight club, with a fanbase that easily fills its new 53,000-seat stadium even without Champions League football or trophies, as a snip at under £1bn compared with the US sports franchises that cost four times that. But when new owners take over, anything can happen.
Photograph by Alex Livesey/Getty Images