Everton kept alive its European hopes with a commanding 3-0 thrashing of Chelsea in their Premier League encounter, handing the visitors a fourth straight defeat in all competitions, at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool, England.
Portuguese striker Beto opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, latching on to a pinpoint pass from James Garner before completing his double just after the hour, slipping the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Chelsea looked for a way into the encounter, but were met by a resilient Everton defence.
Senegalese International Iliman Ndiaye then sealed the victory with a sublime effort 14 minutes from time, curling into the top corner to give Everton their biggest win over Chelsea since 1987 and secure back-to-back home victories new stadium.
Chelsea have now lost four games in a row in all competitions and have had a difficult few weeks in which they were also dumped out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain.
The London side remain in sixth place in the table on 48 points from 31 games, while Everton move up to seventh with 46 points from the same number of matches and are making a big push for European football next season.
“Goals give you energy and at the moment we are gifting goals away,” Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior said. “We started the game edgy and then we played our way into it.”
“But it seems to be happening too often that we give cheap goals away and that gives energy to the opposition and the crowd, and their confidence goes up.”
“Everton fully deserved the victory and it is something we have to change very quickly.”
Saturday’s Premier League results
Brighton 2-1 Liverpool
Fulham 3-1 Burnley
Everton 3-0 Chelsea
Leeds 0-0 Brentford.
