Chelsea opened the Premier League season with victory over Everton as Jorginho’s penalty decided a scrappy contest at Goodison Park.
Thomas Tuchel introduced summer signings Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling from the start but it was one of Chelsea’s established stars who settled affairs when Jorginho rolled a composed penalty past Jordan Pickford in first-half stoppage time following Abdoulaye Doucoure’s foul on Ben Chilwell.
Everton, without a recognised striker following the sale of Richarlison and injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, battled gamely but were woefully short of quality and threat in attack.
Manager Frank Lampard’s cause was not helped by a serious early injury to defender Ben Godfrey, who was taken off on a stretcher following a challenge on Kai Havertz and was later confirmed to have fractured his leg, with Yerry Mina another casualty in the second half.
Chelsea survived in relative comfort and were able to give a debut to new signing Marc Cucurella, the defender signed from Brighton in a deal that could eventually by worth £62m, as they made it a winning start.
Chelsea did not cause Everton too many serious problems but this game was effectively over as a contest because the visiting defence had too much know-how and the home team lacked nous.
Credit: bbc.com
