We Shall Not Be Moved

Everton 2 - 0 Chelsea

It’s been three-and-a-half weeks since the Premier League handed Everton the largest sporting sanction in English top-flight history, docking the club 10 points and plunging it into another battle against relegation. It’s taken the Blues just two weeks to take nine of them back and haul themselves out of the bottom three, as Sean Dyche and his side have shrugged off the setback against Manchester United on 26 November by winning three straight matches.

It’s the first time an Everton side has managed that since March 2021 when Carlo Ancelotti was manager; the Toffees ended up finishing 10th that year, which is where the club would be sitting now after 16 games, four points above Chelsea without that hefty sanction.

Indeed, it was fitting that the free-spending Londoners were today’s opponents at Goodison Park because the respective experience of the two clubs over the majority of the Premier League era and their standing in the game with regard to treatment by the media and the powers-that-be has been very different.

In hoarding players and farming them out on loan to places like sibling club Vitesse Arnhem and spending close to £1bn on incoming transfers – a world record £430m this past summer alone – in just a couple of years by signing them to seven- and eight-year contracts, Chelsea have bent the rules to breaking point. They may yet have their day in front of an independent commission for their own PSR breaches but few could miss the irony – not to mention the mockery of the notion of financial fair play – in Mauricio Pochettino’s response to his team’s defeat at Goodison Park today being a call to spend yet more money in January.

Everton, by contrast, may yet have to sell again in the winter window to cover costs if the regulatory scrutiny of 777 Partners’ proposed takeover of the club drags into the first few weeks of the New Year or their buy-out falters altogether, but under Dyche they have in spades what money can seldom purchase and that is spirit, mentality and belief.

In the space of eight days, Everton have won three games, registered three clean sheets, beaten on their own patch a Forest team that had only lost once at home all season and seen off two of the richest, most vaunted clubs in the Premier League. As Dyche acknowledged proudly after the final whistle this afternoon, the Blues are finding different ways to win — at the City Ground, it was a case of matching Forest and taking the chance when it came; against Newcastle it was about intensity and force of will; today, on short rest after Thursday evening’s heroics and visible fatigue in the ranks, it was about sheer dogged resilience.

It’s been tempting for neutral observers to put Everton’s last three results down to the galvanising effect of the Premier League’s potentially devastating sanction but Dyche’s team were already displaying all the qualities that will more than overcome the unfair loss of 10 points. Indeed, this was their ninth win in their last 13 matches in all competitions, seven of them in the League and that top-four calibre return of 22 points from 33 would otherwise have been enough to propel them into contention for a place in Europe this season.

Everton’s appeal against their penalty might yet see them claw some of those points back but, in the meantime, they will push on, no doubt displaying the kind of character that Dyche has so admirably harnessed in his 11 months in charge at Goodison. The defiance and fight for the badge was there in abundance today even if it didn’t manifest itself in the most effective or free-flowing performance against talented and feisty opponents.

The decision to ask Ashley Young to play two games in less than 72 hours was questionable and the 38-year-old was no match against the speedy Mikhailo Mudryk until he was replaced by Nathan Patterson a few minutes before half-time because of injury. His young deputy was very impressive in his stead, though while on the other side of defence Vitalii Mykolenko was the standout performer which, when you consider that James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite were magnificent in the centre, was no mean feat.

In midfield, the returning James Garner slotted back in seamlessly after his man-of-the-match display at Forest eight days ago and if Idrissa Gueye’s workload and consequent exhaustion over that period exhibited itself in a somewhat disappointing outing alongside him, Amadou Onana came on to mark his own return and up the levels in the second half.

Then there was Dwight McNeil and Abdoulaye Doucouré, the former fairly quiet going forward in the first half but a key factor in the opening goal; the latter outstanding throughout, not least when he fired home with aplomb in the 54th minute to break the deadlock. Lewis Dobbin’s excellent finish in stoppage time for his first senior goal provided the insurance that made the remaining five added minutes comfortable.

The first half had yielded precious few chances for either side. Unlike against Newcastle when Everton created the early chances, it was Chelsea who threatened first but Jordan Pickford made his mark with two parrying saves to first deny Enzo Fernandez, the Argentine putting the rebound wide, and then, more impressively, Cole Palmer as the young striker unloaded a shot from 25 yards searching out the top corner.

The visitors dominated possession but the hosts went close when Jack Harrison’s terrific volley flashed a yard wide of Robert Sanchez’s post after 24 minutes.

Palmer had another dangerous effort deflected behind later in the half but the two sides went into the break goalless, although both managers had been prompted by injury into making early changes.

Reece James had to be replaced by Levi Colwill with an apparent recurrence of his hamstring problem while Young was forced off with an unspecified knock giving Patterson his chance to shine. Branthwaite, who appeared to injure his knee and was close to being substituted himself, ended up finishing the game.

With Gueye already on a harshly-given yellow card, Dyche made one more change at half-time, introducing Onana for the second period and this time it was Everton who produced the early chances.

First, after Pickford had found Calvert-Lewin will a pin-point drop-kick to set up the attack, McNeil tested Sanchez with a fine low shot in the 50th minute that the keeper impressively palmed behind for a corner but four minutes later, the in-form winger played a vital role in the opening goal.

Sent forward into the Chelsea half with a lovely pass out of defence by Mykolenko, McNeil shrugged off the attentions of Conor Gallagher before threading an excellent ball into the box for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The striker was denied well by Sanchez who raced out to block but the rebound fell invitingly to Doucouré who drilled it back across goal and into the far corner of the goal.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the balance of play for the remainder of the regulation 90 minutes was with Pochettino’s men as they searched vainly for an equaliser.

Branthwaite’s clumsy foul on Armando Broja gave Palmer an opportunity from a direct free-kick but he went low rather than aiming for the top corner and Pickford made a comfortable save.

Mudryk, getting much less change from Patterson than he had from Young, sped in behind the full-back for the only time off Colwill’s ball down the channel but Fernandez was denied in front of goal by a superb covering block from Mykolenko, Marc Cucurella’s daisy-cutter was easily gathered, substitute Raheem Sterling was foiled by another crucial challenge from the Ukrainian full-back, while Tarkowski deflected a Mudryk shot over as the Londoners continued to be frustrated.

Beto had come on for the tired Calvert-Lewin but couldn’t unduly test Sanchez with a header from Harrison’s cross but the Chelsea keeper soon had to come off himself because of a knock, which would be a factor in Everton’s decisive second goal two minutes into stoppage time.

McNeil allowed the ball to run behind for a corner on the Blues’ left and when substitute goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic could only get a weak punch on James delivery, it fell to another sub, Dobbin, who rifled home a first-time shot from just inside the box to wrap up the points.

“If you get a group of players who give everything to win, it’s a powerful thing,” Dyche said in the aftermath of another fine win. He and his players will be challenged in the weeks ahead by injuries and suspensions – Branthwaite and Gueye will serve one-game bans against Burnley next weekend; Young will be a doubt along with Seamus Coleman — but that baseline of determination and togetherness, on the pitch and in the stands, will continue to be a vital ingredient in a season that looks destined to finish far more positively than it might have done. 

Or, to put it in fewer but all-encompassing words: We Shall Not Be Moved.

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