Everton end Chelsea's lengthy unbeaten run
13 December, 2020
Chelsea spurned the opportunity to go top of the Premier League seeing as Gylfi Sigurdsson's penalty earned Everton a good vital 1-0 win before 2,000 fans in Goodison Park.
A first defeat in 18 games, excluding penalty shootouts, leaves Frank Lampard's men nonetheless two points adrift of Tottenham and Liverpool near the top of the table.
They are able to extend that gain to five points when they are in action on Sunday.
Victory lifts Everton up to seventh and in a matter of 1 point of the very best four.
Reece James and Mason Mount hit the post for the visitors, nonetheless they were made to pay for an individual rash moment from goalkeeper Edouard Mendy as he bundled above Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Sigurdsson coolly slotted home the resultant spot-kick.
A £220 million ($291 million) spending spree had apparently transformed Chelsea into title contenders, however the Blues badly missed the creativeness of the injured Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic to break Everton down once the Toffees went in front.
Carlo Ancelotti's men had slid down the table after a blistering learn to the season and the necessity for Everton's own big spending to finally pay back with European football was laid bare when the club announced losses of almost £140 million for the 2019/20 season on Friday.
However, it is Calvert-Lewin, signed for £1.5 million from Sheffield United four years back, who's keeping Everton's European ambitions afloat.
The Premier League's top scorer didn't increase his 14 goals this year, but was too quick for both Thiago Silva and Mendy to a loose ball and was destroyed by the Senegalese 'keeper.
Richarlison needed to be convinced to allow Sigurdsson to have the penalty and the Icelandic international made no mistake.
Chelsea were nearly level almost immediately while James's shot from beyond the box was first turned onto the within of the post by Jordan Pickford.
Kurt Zouma then fired too close to the England number one, whilst Olivier Giroud was crowded out when the target was first gaping after Pickford crashed into his own defender Yerry Mina from a long ball forward.
Everton had one one among their previous seven games after a good blistering start had taken them the surface of the table in October.
On the other hand, the limited number of home fans, time for Goodison for the first time since March, received an enormous win to cheer mainly because the hosts placed out with relative comfort following the break.
The closest Chelsea found an equaliser was a Mount free-kick that came back off the post after wrong-footing Pickford ten minutes from time.
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