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Everton 0 Chelsea 1: Drab opening day defeat for Blues

By Matt Townsend

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 06: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea is challenged by James Tarkowski of Everton after the final whistle of the Premier League match between Everton FC and Chelsea FC at Goodison Park on August 06, 2022 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 06: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea is challenged by James Tarkowski of Everton after the final whistle of the Premier League match between Everton FC and Chelsea FC at Goodison Park on August 06, 2022 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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In a poor quality and drab opening day game Everton were beaten by a solitary Jorginho penalty at Goodison Park this evening.

I didn’t expect Everton to win this game and the result was a perfect reversal of last season’s fixture, which the home side won to gain a vital three points in their eventual survival.

Tonight’s match wasn’t a very good advertisment for Premier League football with precious little attacking flair (particulalrly from the Blues’) and there was an awful lot of time-wasting from the away side in the second half, which was increasingly irritating.

And of course the Toffees’ lost not one but two players to injury with first Ben Godfrey after a freak collision and then Yerry Mina both going off. That’s on top of losing Dominic Calvert-Lewin just before the weekend.

It’s just unbeliveable how every season like clockwork this routine of relentless injuries is repeated again and again and again. How is this possible? What is going on with this football club?

I almost feel like there is a curse or something at work here as I’ve never known any team have this level of insanely bad luck with injury. We’ve only played one single game of this season and already Everton have a crisis to deal with!

Now, they are missing two first-choice central defenders for who knows how long and this perhaps puts manager Frank Lampard’s defensive system into question.

No one is surprised by Mina limping off and he plays fewer and fewer games every season. Losing Godfrey is a real blow though as he’s still a young player who really needs a good campaign after taking a step back last season.

It’s also a major problem because he allows Lampard to play that three man defence as the ex-Norwich man is comfortable and experienced playing on the left of a three.

The rumours of a move for Conor Coady are gathering pace and after this disasterous evening, the club have to now get a deal done for him asap.

The other obvious thing to come out of this match was the total lack of attacking threat the home side offered.

Everyone knew this was going to be a problem after Richarlison’s exit and yet at the moment there is no sign of the club addressing it with any urgency.

It looks certain that two new midfielders are joining with Amadou Onana, who was seen at Goodison Park having completed a medical, and Idrissa Gueye who’s return is supposedly very close (although we keep hearing how close the deal is without seeing it get over the line!).

But when are we going to see some attacking threat in this team?

I don’t know what the thinking is, but looking at the chronic lack of goal threat exhibited in this game if the club don’t get a move on and bring in at least one or two new attacking players it’s hard to see Everton scoring any goals this season.

All in all then, a depressingly familiar start with the injuries in particulalr. And while there were positives (such as Alex Iwobi’s performance for example) it looks like being another worrying season of struggle ahead of us.