{"id":1272003,"date":"2022-08-06T20:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-06T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1272003"},"modified":"2022-08-06T20:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T19:00:57","slug":"everton-0-1-chelsea-koulibaly-jorginho-doucoure","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/everton-0-1-chelsea-koulibaly-jorginho-doucoure\/","title":{"rendered":"“Cruised through his debut” – Player ratings as Chelsea squeak by Everton at Goodison Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a gritty evening of football, Chelsea snuck a 0-1 win over injury-ravaged Everton at Goodison Park.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After deploying a back three with a combined age of 100, Chelsea unsurprisingly weren’t at their most energetic. But the Blues did just about enough to put Everton down, aided by the Toffees losing two of their back three to injury. The result is Everton’s first opening day Premier League defeat for 11 years.<\/p>\n

Here’s how the players rated at Goodison Park:<\/p>\n\n

Everton<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jordan Pickford – 4 – <\/strong>Spilled some shots and his rash decision to try and avoid a corner led to Ben Godfrey’s injury. Just looked a mess and was lucky Chelsea didn’t bring their shooting boots.<\/p>\n

Nathan Patterson – 7 – <\/strong>Defended well, rebuffing Chelsea attacks and preventing too many incursions down his flank. Forced a great save from Mendy with a good header.<\/p>\n

Ben Godfrey – 5 – <\/strong>Lasted just 18 minutes. His sloppy backpass led to the situation that ended with his own injury. Hopefully he’s not seriously hurt, but it didn’t look good.<\/p>\n

Yerry Mina – 7 – <\/strong>Marshaled the back-line superbly when he was on. Handled himself superbly and you can see why his absence was so damaging for the Toffees last season. A worry, as he had to leave the field with an injury.<\/p>\n

James Tarkowski – 7 – <\/strong>Solid. Not quite at his Burnley levels, but solid.<\/p>\n

Vitali Mykolenko – 7 – <\/strong>He’s no Lucas Digne nor Leighton Baines, but Mykolenko was decent for Everton. Defended and attacked with plenty of gusto, if not much quality, albeit his block to stop Raheem Sterling from making it 2-0 was superb.<\/p>\n

Abdoulaye Doucoure – 4 – <\/strong>Worked really hard off the ball, but was short of quality in possession and it was ultimately his rash tackle that needlessly gave away the penalty that decided the game.<\/p>\n

\n

Chelsea are the first side to beat Everton on the opening day of the season since QPR at the start of 2011\/12. <\/p>\n

A favour from Frank. ? pic.twitter.com\/1ZJpwx129j<\/a><\/p>\n

— Squawka (@Squawka) August 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n