Chelsea 6 Everton 0: nightmare at Stamford Bridge for Blues

Where to start with this horrendous result? Everton were completely off the pace from the off and made a slew of terrible individual errors with the most concerning from players who had been rock solid until then.

Jordan Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite, probably the Blues best two players all season long, were both at fault for goals scored by Chelsea's brilliant young attacker Cole Palmer who netted four times.

With the defence literally at sixes and almost at sevens and leaking goals like the proverbial sieve, things were little better in midfield.

James Garner, Amadou Onana and Abdoulaye Doucoure all struggled badly to impose themselves and stem the Chelsea tide.

I had hoped that Doucoure in particular might find his best form again and help Everton make something of the game. It was not to be.

Up front Beto toiled alone in place of the injured Dominic Calvert-Lewin and but for a couple of half chances, unsurprisingly as the visitors were so much second best, he offered little threat

So, after such a depressing and humiliating night what does this defeat say about the prospects of the team staying up this season?

You could try to see this result as a one off when the Blues simply came up against a talented team in a good vein of form, at a ground where they have not won for three decades and everything went wrong.

Alternatively, it might indicate that problems are deep-rooted and things are going badly wrong which bodes very ill for the prospects of the side.

In particular, yesterday at Stamford Bridge Everton's previous strengths were almost entirely absent.

Even when the team were mired in that thirteen match winless run, - finally ended with the victory over Burnley - and couldn't buy a goal, the Toffees were still generally solid defensively and rarely got well beaten in those games. Not last night though.

And key performers who Sean Dyche has come to reply upon such as Pickford, Branthwaite and James Tarkowski were all well below their best level.

As we all know the manager's entire strategy for keeping the Blues up is based on his team being a well-organised, hard working and defensively sound side.

If those things are absent then Everton are in deep deep trouble as it is not as if the team have an attack that can outscore anyone either!

This weekend comes another huge home game for the Toffees against Nottingham Forest, the team directly below them, with both clubs having had points deducted recently and in the process of appealing them.

We can only hope that somehow the players can put the miserable experience of last night behind them in time for that match.