Everton 3-0

Telegraph:

Everton 0 Chelsea 3: Pedro takes charge with sensational strike to keep leaders on track for the title

Chris Bascombe

Chelsea can start mapping the route for the title parade and considering the appropriate party venues. They are almost there now.

Second half goals from Pedro, Gary Cahill and Willian edged Antonio Conte ever closer to the Premier League title, but it was the psychological impact of a blistering final 24 minutes at Goodison Park that will surely make the run-in a formality.
This was the defining game of the last few weeks of this campaign. Chelsea knew it. Tottenham knew it. The exuberant celebrations at full-time, Conte leaping onto the back of Thibaut Courtois, betrayed the emotions of the manager. He knows it is now a matter of when, not if.

If there was going to be a slip, Goodison Park was going to be the venue. Only Ronald Koeman’s side realistically stood between Conte's men and the title jitters.  Lose, or even draw, and what was once the distant patter of those harrying Spurs players would become a thumping drum beat.
Chelsea did what they have done all season – a combination  of ruthless efficiency to repel the opponent prior to the sprinkling of stardust as and when necessary in attack.

Their first from Pedro was a gem, a turn and strike from 20 yards to shift the momentum irreversibly in the leaders’ favour on 66 minutes. The second from Cahill was untidy, and Willian’s late third completed the formalities, but it was the ability to find the extra yard and locate the additional gear when it mattered that impressed.
True, Chelsea were full strength, Everton stricken – Morgan Schneiderlin the latest absentee with a groin strain – so this was more genteel a welcome than it might have been.
Nevertheless, this has always been one of those stadiums that doubles up as a barometer of championship pedigree. This was only the second home defeat of the season for the host.

Koeman also had a plan. Or more precisely, he was happy to steal someone else’s. Everton adopted the Jose Mourinho blueprint that proved so successful when Chelsea were beaten at Old Trafford recently, the Dutchman deploying Idrissa Gueye in the Ander Herrera role, man-marking Eden Hazard.
The Senegal midfielder was diligent rather than flawless as the shadow, Hazard able to rid himself on enough occasions to maintain his usual menace.
Further upfield, Koeman ordered three strikers to scurry Chelsea’s three centre-backs into uncomfortable areas.

There was more speed than wit about the strategy – especially in the case of Enner Valencia – but Dominic Calvert-Lewin almost justified his surprise inclusion within two minutes, a scruffy shot rebounding off the post. Cahill blocked Romelu Lukaku’s follow-up.
Then Chelsea did what they do, periodically demonstrating their attacking class through Hazard and Diego Costa.

Costa turned Ashley Williams on 11 minutes and it seemed the first goal would follow as the striker sent Hazard clear against Maarten Stekelenburg. Hazard dribbled past the Dutch keeper but the angle was too narrow.
Costa then seemed confused when volleying over from six yards, the ball bouncing off his head as the stadium waited for a linesman’s flag. 

A pedestrian pace continued to be punctured by occasional brilliance, especially when Hazard tricked Everton with a cunning corner on 52 minutes.
As the Everton defenders waited for the in-swinger, Hazard played low to the near post for Matic to lay the ball to Moses. It was deflected an inch wide.

But the game's key moment came soon after, Pedro turning and firing left-footed into the top corner.
Cahill’s scruffy second on 79 minutes after a goalkeeper error ensured a comfortable finale before Willian provided the polish four minutes from the end.
“Are you watching Tottenham,” sang the away fans.
You could hear the sighs in North London.

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Guardian:

Chelsea close in on title as Pedro sparks emphatic win against Everton

Andy Hunter at Goodison Park

Antonio Conte would not say it but his body language had already confessed. When the final whistle sounded on a pivotal win at Goodison Park, the Chelsea manager strode across the pitch to conduct celebrations before a jubilant away support. He leapt on Thibaut Courtois’s back. He bounced up and down in front of the Bullens Road stand. He led the applause. He knew. The Premier League title is in sight.

“A great win, a great win,” was as far as the Italian coach would go when pressed on the wider significance of victory at Everton. On paper this had been the toughest assignment left for Chelsea in their pursuit of the crown. On the pitch for 66 minutes it proved as much, with Ronald Koeman’s side holding firm and the contest delicately poised. Diego Costa and Eden Hazard had both missed inviting chances in the first half. The combustible centre-forward’s irritation was growing against a team that had won its last eight matches on home soil. Then Pedro let fly from 20 yards and the ball was in the top corner of Maarten Stekelenburg’s goal before the Everton keeper knew it. They had found a way, as champions always do.

Victory, and a first clean sheet in eight games, rewarded a patient, organised and clinical display from Conte’s team, who added gloss to the scoreline with a scrambled goal from Gary Cahill plus a well‑worked one from the substitute Willian. Idrissa Gueye had man-marked his former Lille team-mate Hazard to good effect throughout but Chelsea’s array of creative options ensured they were not contained. “Compare the offensive parts of the two teams today,” the Everton manager requested. “That was the biggest difference and the reason we lost.”

His resources stretched, Koeman was again reliant on youth and sought to unsettle Chelsea’s three-man defence with a forward trio of Dominic Calvert‑Lewin, Romelu Lukaku and Enner Valencia. Chelsea called on experience and a winner’s mentality and subdued the hosts before punishing them with three second-half strikes. Conte praised his substitutes Willian and Cesc Fàbregas for their professionalism and willingness to contribute, not sulk, when not in the starting lineup. “Great men as well as fantastic players,” the Chelsea manager said.

There was an intensity to both teams to begin with, one that would not be sustained until the visitors turned on the style in the final stages, with Calvert-Lewin hitting a post in the second minute after being released by Ross Barkley. The rebound rolled invitingly for Lukaku to convert against his past and potentially future club but Cahill intervened with a crucial block. The Chelsea defender soon tested Stekelenburg with a 25-yard drive spilled by the Everton goalkeeper and hacked clear by Ashley Williams. A frenetic, open start suggested a captivating contest ahead but it developed into a physical struggle before Pedro’s decisive intervention.

Chelsea carried their customary, incisive threat on the counterattack but their final delivery often undermined the quality of their approach work. Their rhythm may have been disrupted by knocks to Costa and Hazard inside the opening 20 minutes, the former left feeling his knee following a committed but clean tackle by the excellent Tom Davies, the latter after colliding with the advertising hoardings, but Koeman’s tactics were also a factor.

Gueye shadowed Hazard’s every step as the Everton manager paid the Belgium international the compliment his abilities have merited this season. With Morgan Schneiderlin sidelined for 10 days by a thigh injury and Gueye spending much of his afternoon chasing Hazard to the corner, Everton offered Chelsea the space to dominate central midfield. Thanks largely to the prodigious work-rate of Davies, the visitors were unable to control the contest but still, as so often this season and as is the hallmark of champions, Conte’s team never lost their sense of purpose.

Only Chelsea posed a genuine threat after the restart but they had rarely tested the Everton goalkeeper when Pedro produced a moment of brilliance to break the deadlock. Collecting a pass from Nemanja Matic 25 yards from the Everton goal, the Spanish winger turned Phil Jagielka to his right, then his left before sending an unstoppable drive into the top corner of Stekelenburg’s goal. It was a finish whose impact would have been felt at White Hart Lane.

There was an element of fortune about Chelsea’s second when Hazard, having been fouled by Gueye as he sprinted down the left, drove the resulting free-kick low into the Everton six-yard box. The delivery took a slight deflection off Gueye and Stekelenburg could only palm the ball on to Cahill, who scored via his knee.

Job done, Hazard was replaced by Willian with five minutes remaining and the Brazilian sealed what was ultimately a comfortable win seconds later. Costa released Fàbregas to the byline and the midfielder cut the ball back perfectly for Willian to beat Stekelenburg with a routine finish. Conte’s roar of delight could be heard around Goodison on the final whistle. “We’re gonna win the league,” his supporters sang. It is hard to disagree now.

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