On the long list of recent humiliations, Chelsea once again embarrassed themselves on their first trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening
On Saturday evening, in their second teatime kick off in a row, Chelsea made their first trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium to face Everton for their final Premier League game before the March international break.
For the task at hand, Liam Rosenior opted for an XI of; Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Hato, Cucurella; Palmer, Fernandez (c), Neto; Pedro.
After a pretty slow opening ten minutes, Chelsea were let off the hook. Robert Sanchez was caught on the ball by Everton striker Beto, but fortunately was able to stick his foot out and poke the ball away to prevent the hosts taking the lead.
Just a few minutes later, David Moyes' side had another chance to take the lead, but James Garner's low driven effort was well blocked by Malo Gusto at very close range. It looked like it may have been going in.
After 33 minutes, Everton had a deserved lead. A superb through ball from Garner found Beto in behind, with the striker keeping his composure by opening his body up and slotting past Sanchez into the bottom corner.
Very shortly after, Chelsea had a good chance to equalise. A corner fell to Fernande around 10 yards out, but his poked effort was superbly saved by Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal. No doubt the Blues' best opportunity of the game up till then. 1-0 at half time.
The interval saw Rosenior look to his bench, and Alejandro Garnacho replaced Gusto ahead of the second half. 12 minutes later, Andrey Santos replaced Romeo Lavia.
On the hour mark, Fernandez whipped a curling shot towards the far post but cometh the hour, cometh the man, and Pickford was there for the home side once again.
Within two minutes, it was 2-0. Everton countered quickly, Idrissa Gueye slipped Beto through, and his effort squirmed through Sanchez, who had to do much better. Sums it up really, a goalkeeping mistake shortly after Pickford had made a superb save.
The 70th minute mark saw Estevao replaced Pedro Neto, for his first appearance since the win at Hull City on the 13th of February. His first action saw him nearly score directly from a corner, but Pickford was again alert to the danger. The corner itself had been won by the England goalkeeper making a good save to deny Fernandez.
Then, with a quarter of an hour remaining, Iliman Ndiaye made it 3-0 with a finish into the top corner. In the aftermath, Rosenior made two more changes, with Liam Delap and Tosin replacing Joao Pedro and Moises Caicedo.
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