Mourinho Punished at the School of Science

Chelsea like to play through teams and we doubled-up on them continuously when they had the ball out wide.

When they had the ball centrally, it was clear that we were keen to push them back with our centre-halves coming out to meet them which in turn meant they had to play wide again, where (as above) we doubled-up leaving them with lots of crossing attempts from way out on the touchline - one reason why they had so many corners.

Chelsea were nullified by this apparent tactic, and they grew more and more frustrated that we were packing the middle of the field and squeezing them out wide all the time. It seemed odd that we were so narrow, but it worked a treat at stopping them getting in front of goal, all bar their one real shot on target that went in.

The only other 'shot on target' they had was Falcao's awful header from 3 yards out that dropped harmlessly into Howard's arms. The only 'save' had made in the entire game.

Tactically spot-on from Martinez, and executed perfectly by the players.

I just hope he can find a way to play against teams who carry less attacking threat, and don't keep the ball as well as Chelsea.

ps: Very good report. I am still wallowing in the glory of it.

Too little to judge him on yet but Galloway (not to mention Stones who almost signed for Wigan) is certainly showing that Bob's top man, Kevin Reeves, has an eye for a defender so let's wait and see.

The wrong pass but his skill and technique cant be faulted. Brought the ball out of tight situations and is definitely growing in confidence. Onwards and upwards!

And when he runs out of gas we have Lennon and Deulofeu to provide interesting changes in tactics when required. All-in-all, it's looking like a promising season in store.

There may be a case to be made though that we may only find our best side due to loss of players. Galloway is 3rd or 4th choice LB but he could be the best and a catalyst for the performance of the rest of the team. Kone would never have got another game for Everton if most fans had their wishes granted and yet he is a key player now.

The number 10 position? It's filled, getting Ross Barkley back is like having spent £30 MM on a new marquee signing. He has a way to go yet but his game has taken a massive step change up, his link up play for the third goal was as good as anything I've seen in many years and he had another assist to boot. If he really get's his act together he may be that elusive 15 goals a season midfielder who moves us on to better things. Our best or probably only route to increased club performance will be the miracle of producing a team that can compete at the highest level without the obscene spending of the franchise clubs. We are tantalisingly close.

Very good things may be happening at the club and yet the new Everton tragedy is that it is us that can't see what the rest of the football world can see clearly.

What a fantastic performance from every Everton player and the manager.

We would have rolled over last season after Matic scored but it appears we have found our fighting spirit again - of which Steven Naismith has in abundance.

I have a tremendous feeling that justice was seen to be been done on our famous ground yesterday - for everyone in football to see.

There is something wonderfully satisfying when right beats might.

In the end, Martinez proved he has depth in the squad and that he knows how to use it. They tore us apart last year because we were so terrible in defence, yet this year it was us exposing their frailties at the back.

None of this is to take anything away from a great performance, with barely a weak contribution from anyone.

Some people have criticised Lukaku's performance. He was not at his rampaging best, but he put a shift in and was instrumental in creating the space exploited by Naismith.

1. Diego Costa should have been sent off for a forearm smash into Coleman's face, but neither MotD or Lyndon's report mention this. Am I alone?

2. It was only about 10 minutes, but the initial impression of Funes Mori is that Phil Vickery has his head up his arse, let's hope it stays that way. He is certainly physical enough, and he looks to have the technique and character to match.

3. Ross Barkley is as good as we've all hoped, and can still get better. He occasionally still makes the wrong decision and turns down an easy pass, but he has the skill and strength to get away with it. I hope someone is helping him analyse these moments and work on his decision making. I disagree with Lyndon's description of a 'poor final ball' to Kone. Although he should have played it sooner, in the end that ball was perfect, but Kone had stopped running and misjudged the situation.

4. This is the most important point, we have shown we can match anyone (except Man City in form!), but our issue is that we seem to be a big game team, and we really need to work on picking up points relentlessly against 'smaller' teams. The other teams in the Premier League around our level are all faltering. We do not need to fear Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham or anyone else who finished above us last year. We can realistically aim to finish above all these teams if we get the consistency. All the things that looked great yesterday, and the McCarthy/Barry axis was one of them, don't look so great when we are the 'bigger' team and have to break someone down. This is the key to our league season now, meaning when our 'horrendous' opening ten games is up, we will have just as big a challenge to be relentless against those other clubs who mostly finished bottom half last year, or are newly promoted. Mirallas and Deulofeu, two of our most talented players, will surely start games and play a big role when it comes to these different type of fixtures.

5. Finally, I wonder if Yarmolenko watched the game. January is generally a bad time to sign players, but with the Ukrainian league finishing, and the possibility that they're out of the Champions League, it could actually work out perfectly, he could be that mid-season boost we seem to want and need every year. We'll just have to hope that by then bigger fish aren't sniffing around him.

Swings & roundabouts.

Regarding your point 5 (Yarmolenko) I wonder if Shaquiri is now regretting rejecting our season long loan offer? I know he (and his club) wanted a long term deal but I wonder if he is looking at the table with a tinge of regret.

Brilliant performance from the lads and the manager yesterday. I only wish the derby was this week before the RedShite get a chance to sack Brenda. Fantastic weekend for us Blues.

Lukaku is much happier playing with Kone (who has been a revelation) all that Arouna needs is a goal and then we will see the best of him. Between those two and Barkley they created so much space for Naismith (the ruthless) to score his hat trick. Jags and Stones were equally immense in my view and Stones owes so much to Jags and the departed Distin for the experience that is rubbing off on the lad. His positional sense is improving almost week by week.

My only negative is still the size of the squad and the lack of cover in key positions. Tactics will need to change according to the opposition as the tactic used yesterday will not work against every team. Galloway will make the grade as I have always said but it is a shame that we only seem to be bringing through defenders.

If we continue to play in the same manner we will be difficult to beat as our defence is very solid. Great to see every player doing so well and I hope that Coleman's injury is not bad as full back cover for him is not good. I do not like to see players playing out of position.

Great to see a top result and this should give us bags of confidence.

Mike, I also thought it was a poor ball to Kone, and felt Ross, should have played in Lukaku, down the side, when he first turned.

You forget how old some of our better players really are sometimes, I even seen them having a few disputes with each other at times which showed me how much they wanted it yesterday. Very good report Lyndon, I enjoyed reading it mate.

Costa simply got pissed off with the defender and lashed out an arm in his face, no? I don't see any mitigation in that instance.

Instead of looking at the performance of Everton, both tactically and in effort, they tried to put a spin on it by just talking and showing the poor Chelsea performance as an excuse for Everton winning ,and not being out-thought and outplayed by Everton.

Well played, Everton; keep this performance and attitude going for the rest of the season.

Like someone said previously, he avoids the easy pass too much sometimes when it's the better option. Unnecessarily over complicates his game by not playing a simple pass or give and go and instead, turning back on the ball and running into trouble when there really is no need and he really does need to start ironing that kind of stuff out of his game and fine tuning it!

I don't want him to stop getting on the ball and bursting through, taking men on, but he can't do it every time and in certain circumstances and he needs to learn that. Also he needs to work harder, track back and close men down, maybe if he did that with Matic he wouldn't of took the shot on and scored that worldy?!

And Lukaku for me was poor and as been since the Southampton game. Gives a great performance in that game, talks himself up and says there is no reason for him not to play like that more often than not, then he hasn't backed it up and played like that! We all know his touch isn't great and he can be lazy but his movement throughout the whole game isn't great. He rarely spins the CB and makes that run between FB & CB and gives the likes of Barkley, when he bursts through, a through ball to make. Naismith twice yesterday made 2 great runs in behind and got 2 goals. Even Kone after dropping in deep to get involved with the play first half, nearly broke his neck to get in the box and on the end of Coleman's cross and nearly scored as well with the header and Lukaku just doesn't do it enough.

If he did we'd create an hell of a lot more chances and possibly score a lot more goals than we do.

We did play well, we played the game perfectly and credit to Martinez for getting his tactics spot on and the whole team in general played well but for me Lukaku more than most needs to up his game again.

No player could be faulted yesterday; if it weren't for Begovic and a stunner from Matic, the score would've been bigger.

He also showed some pace and strength to make the opportunities later on which, admittedly, he wasted. I think he'll be important for us this season. Entirely accept though that there is much room for improvement.

Also, I would like to take you on about Barkley, I saw a huge improvement in his game yesterday. Yes, he gave away the ball a few times - but was always looking for the ball and protected the ball well. He had 2 assists, for Gods sake!

The only complaint I have about him is that he still tends to go to ground far too easily -- he should realise that he could be building up a reputation and it just needs a comment by a 'Top 4' manager (a la Wenger -- Andy Johnson) and he could be targeted by the refs.

Lets keep an even keel though when we lose to a 'lesser team/s' as we are almost certain to do sometimes this season. Were looking pretty strong though, so we've every right to be optimistic I'd say.

Were still 7th in the betting for the league, a top 6 bet looks a good idea.

A happy weekend for all Blues.

When the manager, players and the crowd are up for a game I think the tactics and team selection are secondary.

We were going to win that game yesterday no matter what.

The next 2 games may define our season.

COYB

COYB!

Brendan Galloway... this 19-year-old is another outstanding acquisition from the lower leagues. Two more years (if we keep Stones) and we will have two classy ball-playing centre-halves.

Exciting times with young players who are just developing:

Barkley
Galloway
Lukaku
Stones
Deulofeu

I hope my pessimism after last season was totally unfounded.

I'm particularly glad for the last part. Some on here kiss Mourinho's arse. The amount of idiotic posts I've read which state that Lukaku is crap because Mourinho let him go. The same Lukaku with more goals than Costa this season. The same Lukaku who looks better than Costa this season. The same ruffled Mourinho looking for one excuse after another. The same Mourinho who let De Bruyne go, and Robben. The same Mourinho's whose Chelski side will out of the title race by October at this rate.

We were better than them and deserved too win. Martinez's is doing what I didn't expect him to do. He is being tactically fluid, and we look solid again. We are sixth in the league, after the hardest start in the league.

As I pointed out over the summer, and as many of the sensible Evertonians understand, we have some superb quality in this squad. If we get that quality to gel, then we can beat anyone. We have plenty of young players capable of achieving brilliant things in football. Fingers crossed that they start achieving them this season.

Now let's build on it and maintain some consistency

I agree with you regarding all your points. I think last year, Martinez had to make do with the players available after so many injuries in such a small squad. I think we also saw how difficult it was for some of the players last season, especially young Ross, who was hit by ever closer making and this deeply affected his confidence.

He's coming on a bundle. Though he still likes to beat every player in front of him, when he could be more effective releasing the ball earlier, he'll become the fantastic player with the talent he has.

Now were beginning to see the results of his determination to get some good young players in while trying to get the best out of some players who are into the "veteran" stage and some who are good experienced players with years left.

To have players like Deulofeu and Mirallas on the bench with Pienaar and Gibson near full fitness is great and I really liked the cameo from the young Argentinian, he looks classy indeed. He took to the game which was 100 mile an hour, as though he was a regular performer in the team.

Brendan Galloway isn't only a top class talent, he lets no one intimidate him, so wins those personal battles that go on. I think Bainsey's going to have some challenge there.

I think Gareth Barry was superb, Stonesy came through what he,perhaps, felt would be a torrid afternoon, as a totally class player and cool as ice. Well done lad. I'm chuffed for Arouna Kone, he's taken some crap while coming back from injury and he's made such a difference taking some of the weight off Rom.

And Naisey! Well, what a great bloke he is and he totally deserved that hat trick.

And the manager. Well, I think he's top class and have always thought so. I think this next twelve months we'll see him use more tactics because he has the players to slot in now. I think he's made mistakes but I think it will be a fairer assessment of him this year.

Southern biased media!!