Jorginho penalty earns Chelsea rare win at Everton

Jorginho’s first-half penalty was enough to earn Chelsea a first win at Everton since 2017 with a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.

Jorginho converted from the spot with what was the third opening-weekend penalty he has scored for the Blues, after Abdoulaye Doucoure had halted Ben Chilwell’s run into the box with a clumsy challenge.

That goal came after more than eight minutes of first-half injury time, added largely due to a nasty early injury suffered by Ben Godfrey in a challenge with Kai Havertz, which saw him stretchered off and taken to hospital.

The hosts struggled to challenge in open play without a recognised striker on the pitch but from two corners, James Tarkowski forced Edouard Mendy into a fingertip stop before Doucoure pulled an excellent sprawling save out of the Chelsea goalkeeper.

Demarai Gray also beat Thiago Silva in a footrace into the area in a rare promising moment in open play for Everton before the defender recovered to block his effort behind, but the hosts lacked the quality to find a way through as they fell to an opening-day defeat for the first time since 2012.

How Chelsea edged Everton in workmanlike win

A promising Everton opening was stopped in its tracks by a seven-minute stoppage when Godfrey was left requiring oxygen and a stretcher after an innocuous challenge with Kai Havertz in his own area.

From then the pattern of the opening half took a different tone, one of Everton withstanding spells of Chelsea pressure and looking occasionally threatening from set-pieces.

Debutant Tarkowski was denied by Mendy at full-stretch in their best chance of the opening period from one corner. Ironically, Chelsea racked up 13 of their own before the break but only forced Jordan Pickford into one real save from a long-range Mason Mount effort.

The hosts looked certain to hold onto the half-time stalemate their workrate had earned until a clumsy tug from Doucoure halted Chilwell’s run into the box.

After Craig Pawson’s immediate penalty award, Jorginho succeeded in beating Pickford from 12 yards where he had failed in the Euro 2020 final 13 months ago, to give Chelsea the lead in the 54th minute of the opening period.

Fittingly for a game punctuated by stoppages chances came in fits and starts after half-time too. Out of nothing, Doucoure was denied by a fine Mendy stop when a loose ball fell to him at a corner, before Gray’s outpacing of Silva, only to be denied a clear sight of goal by the veteran defender’s smart positioning.

Without a recognised number nine on the pitch for either side both found chance creation challenging in the final half-hour, with debutant Marc Cucurella forging Chelsea’s one late opening of note with a low cross to Sterling, which was kept out by a vital block from Vitaliy Mykolenko.

What’s next?

Everton head to Aston Villa in the early kick-off at 12.30pm on Saturday August 13. It’s the start of a string of winnable games at they then play Nottingham Forest, Brentford and Leeds.

The London derby between Chelsea and Tottenham at Stamford Bridge will be live on Sky Sports. Kick-off is at 4.30pm on Sunday August 14.