Chelsea managed to beat Everton by one courtesy of superb strike from Willian.
The game started off as Nemanja Matic fired a shot from outside the eighteen-yard-box and missed by only a few hairs. After a few minutes Steven Naismith attempted to clear the ball and in his effort to do so he seemed to thrown his arm up and used it, but all of the appeals for a handball went unanswered as Jonathan Moss, the referee, did not even bat an eye and allowed play to continue. This would be the start of the frustration that the home team would endure throughout the rest of the match.
Around the eighth minute, Romelu Lukaku broke through the Chelsea defence and had it not been for a spectacular save from Petr Cech then Chelsea may have just gone behind. But that was not to be as the Czech goalkeeper stuck out his leg and saved his side from a possibly dismal fate.
As the rest of the half progressed Chelsea seemed to grow extremely frustrated at their inability to put one in the back of the net as Tim Howard kept making excellent saves and the Chelsea attack continued to be wasteful. In defence for Chelsea, Kurt Zouma and Cech, managed to keep Everton off the score sheet. Willian and Eden Hazard were the only sparks for Chelsea in the attack, but both were wasteful when given the opportunity to create a solid goal scoring opportunity or put one in the back of the net. Loic Remy was invisible for most of the first half and Juan Cuadrado was proving to be useful in his first start for the team from Stamford Bridge.
At the start of the second half Everton manager, Roberto Martinez, made a substitution by putting on James McCarthy in favour of Muhamed Besic, a player who had been given a warning by the referee already.
Chelsea continued to struggle to find the back of the net as Everton were doing everything possible to keep Hazard and Co. from scoring. After a period of constant attack from Chelsea, the Toffees managed to get a break as Bryan Oviedo charged down the left side and put in a sweet cross for Lukaku who forced Cech to make yet another terrific save to keep the Belgian and Everton off the scoresheet.
A few minutes later Mourinho decided to take debutant Cuadrado out in favour of Cesc Fabregas and Remy, who did almost nothing, out for Didier Drogba. Mourinho’s men continued to look for matchwinner and Martinez decided to make some changes by taking out Aaron Lennon and Ross Barkley and substitute in Darron Gibson and Kevin Mirallas.
With that pair of substitutions from the Spanish manager his team started to defend even more as the newly introduced Fabregas continued the raid of Everton’s walls. In the 85th minute a frustrated home side seemed to have finally taken the lead through a fantastic shot from Matic, but the shot apparently deflected off Ivanovic who was sadly in an offside position. No goal!
A couple of minutes transpired and Gareth Barry made a clumsy tackle and with him being on a yellow already he was sent off with two minutes left and with the Blues now really piling on the pressure. A minute after Willian managed to score a stunner after a poor clearance from Tim Howard allowed the Brazilian to fire a cannon from outside the box and put it in the bottom right corner of the net allowing Stamford Bridge to go wild.
Soon after Willian made way for Mourinho’s last change of the match as the English defender, Gary Cahill, came onto the field.
Full time Chelsea 1-0 Everton
