Chelsea’s Willian leaves it late to take the three points from 10-man Everton

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/11/chelsea-everton-premier-league-match-report

Version 0 of 1.

Every season there are standout moments when everything falls into place for the team who will eventually finish at the top of the league. For Chelsea this seemed as if it could be one.

The clock was turning into its 90th minute when Willian let fly with his right boot. A seven-point lead was in danger of being whittled down to five and in the moments preceding the goal it was clear how the frustration had got the better of one of José Mourinho’s players.

Branislav Ivanovic is likely to get a three-match ban for that loss of control when he grabbed the substitute James McCarthy by the neck, then rammed his head into his opponent, as the two sets of players argued over the challenge from Gareth Barry that brought the Everton player’s second yellow card to end his night prematurely.

The referee, Jon Moss, also booked McCarthy, Ramires and Cesc Fàbregas for their parts in the confrontation and both teams stand to face a separate FA charge for not controlling their players, but the most important detail came next.

Fàbregas aimed the free-kick into the penalty area and it was Ivanovic who headed it on. Tim Howard punched the ball clear but Willian was lurking 20 yards from goal. His shot was struck with power, from the outside of his boot, but it was the deflection off Steven Naismith that helped it into the bottom corner and had Mourinho talking of a “beautiful” win.

The relief was considerable because Chelsea might have been behind at that stage but for a sensational save from Petr Cech to prevent Romelu Lukaku scoring against his former club midway through the second half. Everton had defended diligently, with John Stones excelling in front of the England manager, Roy Hodgson.

Howard had produced a series of fine saves and, however stroppy Mourinho was when it came to answering questions about Ivanovic, nobody should think it particularly spoiled his mood.

“I don’t remember a team to be champions without a couple of victories in the last minute,” he said. “In my case every time I won the league title I had a couple of matches where we won in the last minute. This was the first time this season.”

It was a breathless finale that also featured Nemanja Matic, the game’s outstanding performer, slashing the ball past Howard in the 86th minute only for his celebrations to be cut short because it had taken a deflection off Ivanovic, in an offside position, on the way to goal.

Chelsea’s manager was even moved to describe it afterwards as being “fantastically well disallowed”, though his praise for the referee went only so far. Barry, he said, should have been sent off in the first half.

Mourinho being Mourinho, the oddity was that he forgot to mention it might have been a much more straightforward night if the referee had seen Naismith use an arm to lever the ball away from Juan Cuadrado inside the penalty area, with only four minutes gone.

By now Mourinho’s issue with the Premier League’s referees and what he perceives to be a “campaign” against his club is familiar. He goes too far, undoubtedly, but this was one of the more justifiable grievances to go into his increasingly thick file of complaints.

Cuadrado slipped in seamlessly on his first full start, interchanging positions with Willian, and was full of quick, direct running. Yet there were also times when Chelsea missed Diego Costa, serving the final game of his three-match suspension, and Everton actually had the best chance of the first half when Aaron Lennon and Ross Barkley combined to set up Lukaku.

Mourinho had left out Thibaut Courtois because he had seen signs of fatigue in the last two matches. Cech is a remarkable man to have in reserve and reminded everyone why his manager still regards him among the top three goalkeepers in the business.

It was certainly a brilliant reflex save to turn Lukaku’s later chance over the bar, from almost point-blank range, after Bryan Oviedo’s low cross had picked out the former Chelsea striker. Lukaku will feel he ought to have scored but Cech deserves the acclaim and must have played his way into Mourinho’s thoughts for the Champions league tie against Paris St-Germain next Tuesday.

On the balance of play the victory was deserved, yet it also seemed harsh on Everton. Too often this season Roberto Martínez’s team have been undermined by their defending.

Phil Jagielka played here more like the assured competitor of old and Stones’ performance was epitomised by one of the game’s outstanding moments to take the ball off Loïc Rémy with a sliding tackle. Higher up the pitch, there was also an assured performance from Barkley.

Chelsea, however, had most of the second-half momentum. After the hour there was a burst of pressure that involved Howard making as many saves in the space of five minutes as he had done throughout the entire match to that point.

The American, playing his first game since Boxing Day, showed in those moments why Martínez had brought him straight back into the team at the expense of Joel Robles. He was finally beaten by a deflection and the point was not lost on Martínez that Ivanovic played a part in the “hurtful” late goal.