Well, what can I say, an extraordinary match with twists and turns around every corner. Guus Hiddink’s men went into the game full of hope, needing a win to have any chance of reaching a champions league place, whilst Everton were looking to complete their first double over Chelsea since the late 1970’s.
The game started off slow, with both sides trying to break each other down but with no end product in the final third. The first half finished 0-0, with many falling asleep due to the boring nature of the game; it was like watching a Manchester United side under Louis Van Gaal.
But as they say, football is an unpredictable game, and Everton opened the scoring as John Terry put the ball into his own net after Leighton Baines crossed the ball into JT’s path, but the former England skipper couldn’t do anything to get out of the way with the ball bouncing from his foot to his thigh and past Thibaut Courtois.
Six minutes later, Kevin Mirallas had made it 2-0 with a sublime effort on the half volley that flew past the despairing Thibaut Courtois. Chelsea looked down and out, but something magic happened; Fabregas found his magic hat.
The Spaniard picked the ball up in our own half, spotted the run of Diego Costa, and you know the rest. Costa got onto the end of the ball, beating the Everton defender to the ball, Tim Howard attempted to clear things up but it deflected off Costa and left him with an open net, 2-1.
Chelsea’s first goal was scored in the 62nd minute and the second with in the 64th minute as Cesc Fabregas shot from outside the area was deflected past Tim Howard, the passion he showed celebrating is indescribable, it was something we’ve been missing all season.
One thing that we’ve been doing all season is to try kill off the game by defending, but yet again we paid the price as in the 91st minute, Duelofeu’s cross was met at the back post by Ramiro Funes Mori, who squeezed it past the Chelsea’s Belgian keeper. Zouma and Ivanovic just stood there in the process of the goal, complaining for offside.
Chelsea may have not learn their lesson but neither had Everton; they were in the same position against Bournemouth, where they had scored a late goal but over celebrated, which resulted in added time being added on to the original stoppage time. The Cherries went on to make it 3-3 that game. Did Chelsea have the right mentality to produce the same end result?
Yes they did, a long ball was knocked on by substitute Oscar into the path of John Terry who proceeded to back heel it past Tim Howard in the 98th minute. There was controversy to the goal, with the skipper being offside. But in the words of John Terry “Who Cares”.