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 08 October 2008 00:54 BST

Essien goal earns Chelsea much-needed win away at Everton

Thursday, 17 Apr 2008 22:19
Essien's goal keeps Chelsea in the fight for the Premier League title
Chelsea grounded out a 1-0 win away at Everton this evening to close the gap on Manchester United to two points at the top of the Premier League.

Michael Essien grabbed the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time as Chelsea edged a scrappy affair at Goodison Park.

Chelsea were missing inspirational duo Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, and with Everton still chasing a Champions League place, this could have been a tough game for the Blues.

But in truth it was an easy win as Everton lacked imagination up front and failed to create any real goalscoring chances.

Both teams had long spells of possession in midfield, but couldn't find the killer pass to carve open either defence.

Everton's best effort on goal came from the hard-working Manuel Fernandes, who saw his curling free-kick parried away by Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal.

Chelsea looked the classier side on the ball, but when they did breach the Everton defence they benefited from a huge slice of luck.

Essien played a quick one-two with Shaun Wright-Phillips, but the ball took a massive deflection off Phil Jagielka as it came back to him inside the Everton penalty area.

Essien took full advantage of his fortune by neatly lifting the ball over Tim Howard to score.

There were barely any chances to speak of in the second half and despite the home fans loudly venting their frustrations, Everton badly seemed to miss their creative sparks Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill.

Fernandes had the best effort for the Toffees as he saw another brilliant free-kick miss the Chelsea goal by inches with Cech well beaten.

Everton tried to surge forward with time running out, but Chelsea comfortably held on for all three points. End of story


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