Three lessons from Chelsea’s loss to Everton: Never as simple as it seems

Chelsea stumbled against a suddenly buoyant Everton side. The Blues made plenty of mistakes, but no one player or factor was ever the only problem.

The Blues fell to Everton. They were not necessarily outplayed by their brothers in blue so much as they made sloppy mistakes that Everton took advantage of to rip Chelsea to shreds. There has been a bit of an inquest as to who or what to blame. The mistakes happened all over the pitch, and they left behind lessons to be learnt going deeper into the winter slog.

1. Defensive abomination

Chelsea’s defense against Everton was an absolute mess with all three goals a direct consequence of the team’s collective inability to either stop long balls into the box or a simple inability to deal with them when they did come in. It was an amateurish, naive, and diabolical defensive display.

For a team harboring intentions of finishing in the top four, Chelsea now has the worst overall defensive record in the top half of the table with 24 goals conceded, as well as the worst away defense in the league.

Against 18th placed Everton, who had just lost 5-2 to archrivals Liverpool last time out, Chelsea did not even make their opponents work for the three goals they scored. The first was a consequence of poor marking in the area when a simple cross was enough to leave Kurt Zouma stranded and Andreas Christensen hapless as Richarlison exploited the huge gap in between the two center backs to smash home his header past a helpless Kepa Arrizabalaga.

The second was a collective defensive mishap as Zouma’s poor initial contact with the ball lofted it up into the air at the edge of the box. In the subsequent confusion, with Christensen confused as to how and to whom the ball was to be dealt with, their puzzling, collective inability to deal with a simple high ball allowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to once more dart into the space between the two center backs and finish with aplomb.

The third goal was, in comparison to the second, where Chelsea seemed determined to make things difficult for themselves.

Arrizabalaga’s botched pass to Zouma saw the ball go straight to Theo Walcott instead. Five seconds later, the ball somehow ended up through the legs of Arrizabalaga and in the back of the net, courtesy of yet another Calvert-Lewin touch.

While all three goals were difficult to take, the third was especially disappointing considering how Chelsea was already behind and desperately trying to find a way back into the game. In all three, Chelsea’s evident lack of a voice at the back was clear for all to see, as overrated as Jorginho’s leadership on the pitch can sometimes be.

Perhaps Saturday was just one of those days. It was an incredibly frustrating experience for the away fans. In a week which saw Chelsea’s transfer ban lifted and names such as Jadon Sancho and Timo Werner discussed as future additions to the squad, perhaps a look at potential reinforcements at the back would do Chelsea a whole lot more good instead.