Jorginho scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, while Everton defender Ben Godfrey was stretchered off with a bad ankle injury
“I’m frustrated maybe but not in terms of our performance because I thought we were really good,” he tells Sky Sports. “Defensively, we gave the lads a solid game plan to defend, because Chelsea want to pick you up, pull you apart and play through you but we never allowed them to apart from one tiny moment of concentration; a tiny mistake from us. I thought our lads gave everything, so there’s small frustration but purely in terms of the result.”
He is asked about the injuries to Ben Godfrey and Yerry Mina. “It feels like it is a small fracture of his leg,” he says of Godfrey. “We are assessing that. He will be out for a while, Mina is an ankle injury and could be out for a while. When it rains, it pours.”
“We have struggled to get points here in past seasons,” he tells Sky Sports. “Today we have the points and a win is a win is a win. It’s the most important for everything but we have to get better. I could assume that we are ont on our highest levels but some of the players came in late and pre-season was a bit turbulent.
“The last week in training was very promising and in some situations through the first half we were quite good. In the second half we had simply not enough movement on the ball and with less movement there were more ball losses. It was a bit of a strange second half without the rhythm from our team and the interruptions and in the end there were 10 minutes of extra time. But we hang in there and do what we needed to keep a clean sheet. We need to get better.”
Premier League: It was not a statement performance to launch the new season or the new Todd Boehly era from Chelsea but Thomas Tuchel found rare encouragement at Goodison Park nevertheless. Andy Hunter reports from Goodison Park.
Everton: While Frank Lampard is unlikely to be stressed by the defeat, he will be far more conerned by the loss of two of his central defenders to injury. Ben Godfrey qwas stretchered off with what looked like a very serious ankle injury that could keep him sidelined for several months, while Yerry Mina hobbled off later in the game after pulling up lame.
Peep! Peep! Peep! Chelsea take all three points from a game that won’t live long in the memory of two many of those who watched it or played in it. Jorginho scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot deep in added time in the first half following an Abdoulaye Doucoure shove on Ben Chilwell.
90+10 min: Everton win a free-kick just inside their own half and Pickford lumps it forward. The ball goes out for a corner, from which Everton win another free-kick a long way out, wide on the right. Marc Cucurella is booked for kicking the ball away. Gray sends it forward trying to pick out Tarkowski but the ball ends up in the warm embrace of Edouard Mendy. That’s it - it’s all over!
90+9min: So impressive for Crystal Palace last season, Conor Gallagher comes on for his full Chelsea debut. Jorginho makes way.
90+8 min: Mason Holgate is booked for a foul on Pulisic, who had robbed Jordan Pickford of possession as the goalkeeper ran out of his penalty area with the ball at his feet.
90+6 min: James Tarkowski is penalised, somewhat harshly in my humble opinion, for barging into the back of Armando Broja. Free-kick for Chelsea, wide on the right. It comes to nothing.
90+4 min: With six minutes to go and their team trailing by just one goal, you might expect Everton fans to be fully behind their players, roaring them on in search of an equaliser. Whether it’s the heat or something else, they seem curiously lethargic and largely silent.
90+2 min: The fourth official has signalled a minimum of 10 minutes of added time. Thiago Silva goes to ground holding his thigh but in my expert medical opinion it’s cramp he’s suffering from, not a hamstring injury.
90 min: Christian Pulisic holds his arms wide in a “Who me?” gesture after being penalised for a foul on Ruben Vinagre. He’s well within his rights to complain as he didn’t do much wrong in a 50-50 tussle for the ball. Demarai Gray sends the ball towards the far post, where Thiago Silva gets his head to it.
88 min: Chelsea win another corner, what seems like their 257th of the game. Like the other 256, Everton clear this one too.
87 min: Play resumes and the club doctors of both teams return to their respective dug-outs having been pressed into service.
84 min: A policeman jogs on to the pitch to alert referee Craig Pawson to a medical emergency in one of the stands. It must be serious. The game is paused but the players remain on the field for now.
83 min: Cucurella pulls the ball across the face of goal and Raheem Sterling steers it towards the bottom corner. It’s going in but Vitally Mykolenko lunges in to put it out for a corner instead. Nothing comes of the set-piece.
82 min: Marc Cucurella shapes to take the free-kick but leaves it for Reece James, who shoots tamely over the bar.
80 min: Sterling plays Ruben Loftus-Cheek in behind Mykolenko with a wonderfully weighted pass. Mykolenko drags the Chelsea substitute to ground just outside the penalty area, earning himself a yellow card. Free-kick for Chelsea, in line with the right side of the Everton box.
78 min: N’Golo Kante loses possession halfway inside the Everton half after picking up a pass from Cucurella but the home side are unable to capitalise.
75 min: Chelsea double-substitution: Kalidou Koulibaly and Kai Havertz make way for Armando Broja and Marc Cucurella. A Brighton defender until very recently, Cucurealla slots into the left side of Chelsea’s back three.
73 min: Receiving the ball on the edge of the Chelsea six-yard box, Dele Alli controls it with the first touch of a street mugger and then trips over his own feet as Cesar Azpilicueta slides in to clear the ball.
69 min: Lille defensive midfielder Amadou Onana, who stands 6ft 4in in his socks, is in the directors’ box at Goodison today, in a state of affairs that suggests he’ll be signing for the club imminently. I wonder if he can do a job at centre-half?
68 min: Everton lose a second centre-half to injury. Yerry Mina limps off reluctantly and is replaced by Ruben Vinagre, who comes on for his Everton debut.
67 min: Yerry Mina goes to ground holding his ankle after pulling up lame with the ball at his fet by the touchline and nobody else near him.
64 min: Chelsea double-substitution: Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic on for Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount. Reece James originally thought he was being taken off and made his way to the touchline looking a mite perplexed but I think the fourth official punched his number into the electronic board in error.
61 min: Chelsea clear their lines. Tarkowski picks out Mykolenko with a good ball from deep out wide but his ambitious volley sails wide.
60 min: Everton’s players have been curiously lethargic in the opening 15 minutes of this second half and one suspects a second Chelsea goal would kill the game off. Everton win themselves a corner but won’t take it until Dwight McNeil is replaced by Dele Alli.
56 min: Reece James gets the first booking of the game for the heinous act of time-wasting at a throw-in.
52 min: Teed up by Iwobi, Doucoure unleashes a shot with Edouard Mendy stranded in no-mans land following an Everton corner. The Chelsea goalkeeper half rises to his feet to block and a follow-up shot from Mason Holgate takes a deflection, loops up in the air and is eventually caught by Mendy, who looks mightily relieved. Chelsea were all over the place there but they get away with it.
51 min: The atmosphere at Goodison is a bit flat at the moment, that goal late in added time at the end of the first half having silenced the crowd for the time being at least.
48 min: Thiago Silva finds himself the sole Chelsea defender back in his own penalty area after being beaten by Demarai Gray in a foot race to a long ball over the top from deep. He recovers to put himself between Gray and the Chelsea goal and as the Everton forward shoots from a tight angle, the ball deflects wide of the far post off the Brazilian’s inner thigh. With the danger averted, Silva gives Edouard Mendy the stink-eye for not sprinting out of his penalty area to avert the original danger.
47 min: Cesar Azpilicueta nips across to intercept a through ball from deep played into the path of an Anthony Gordon run.
46 min: Play resumes, with no further changes in personnel on either side.
Peep: A protracted, reasonably even and entertaining first half draws to a close, with Chelsea a goal up courtesy of Jorginho’s spot-kick. There weren’t many chances for either side, with James Tarkowski probably having the pick of the bunch with Spare a thought for Ben Godfrey, who was stretchered off with an ankle injury he suffered while scrambling to get back to help tidy up after badly misplacing a back-pass to Jordan Pickford.
45+9 min: That was a moment of lunacy from Doucoure, who panicked when Chilwell got the better of him. Everton will be gutted to go behind after an otherwise fine first-half performance.
Chelsea lead! Deep into first half injury time, Jorginho sends Pickford the wrong way and rolls the ball just inside the left upright.
45+7 min: Abdoulaye Doucoure shoves Ben Chilwell to the ground using both arms, prompting Craig Pawson to point to the spot.
45+4 min: From that corner, Chelsea win yet another one, with Yerry Mina putting the latest inswinger behind. Everton eventually clear their lines.
45+3 min: Mykolenko sticks the ball out for what I think is Chelsea’s 11th corner. It’s the first one on the left side and Ben Chilwell sends the ball into the mixer. It breaks to Reece James, whose shot goes out for ... you’ve guessed it – a corner.
45+1 min: Into added time we go and there’ll be at least eight minutes of it following that long delay for the injury to Ben Godfrey, who was stretchered off earlier with a bad ankle injury.
43 min: Raheem Sterling gets the ball in the net for Chelsea but has his effort ruled out for offside. It’s good news for Everton in general and Jordan Pickford in particular - England’s finest had fumbled an N’Golo Kante shot into Sterling’s path.
41 min: Everton attack on ther break and Demarai Gray tries to pick out Anthony Gordon in acres of space. Cool as a cucumber despite being the only defender back, Thiago Silva sticks out a leg to intercept the pass.
40 min: A Mason Mount cross into the Everton penalty area is volleyed clear by Mason Holgate, who’s been keeping busy since coming on for Ben Godfrey.