Jorginho’s penalty was enough to give Chelsea a winning start to the season at Goodison Park after their turbulent summer.
The experienced midfielder has missed a few spot kicks in his career but kept his cool this time to send Jordan Pickford the wrong way after Abdoulaye Doucoure had pushed over Ben Chilwell in the last of nine first half added minutes.
It was enough to give Chelsea all three points which will be a relief for boss Thomas Tuchel after a summer when the club was taken over by American Todd Boehly, saw record signing Romalu Lukaku return on loan to Inter Mlan, Anthony Rudiger and Andreas Christensen leave on free transfers, while bringing in Raheem Sterling among a bunch of new signings.
Sterling had a debut goal disallowed for offside but was kept quiet by a resolute Everton defence in which James Tarkowski was outstanding on his debut following his move from Burnley.
There were few chances in a scrappy second half but Chelsea showed all their experience to take all three points and end a four of four consecutive defeats at Goodison Park. Frank Lampard will be encouraged by his team’s fight and determination although the game underlined they badly need extra firepower.
