Maurizio Sarri accused his side of switching off mentally as Chelsea provided Everton’s first top-six scalp in more than two years, the Italian admitting that he is worried about reaching the top four if he cannot rectify the problem.
“At the moment this is our limit, I think,” the Chelsea manager said after a 2-0 defeat at Goodison. “In my opinion the first 45 minutes were the best we have played all season, then in the second half we stopped playing. We forgot how to defend, forgot how to counterattack and that is a problem for us, because even if you don’t score you have to stay in the match.”
Sarri was right in saying Chelsea could have been three or four goals up at half-time, and understandably bemused by the sudden switch as Everton took a grip on the second half after being outplayed in the first.
“We were good up to the last minute of the first half and bad from the first minute of the second,” the Chelsea manager said. “We were in control of the game, all we had to do was continue, and we could not do that.
“If you are asking me about the top four I would say it depends on whether you are speaking about the first half or the second. It will be hard to reach the top four now but I would not say impossible. If we can play like we did in the first half for eight matches we will give ourselves a chance.”
Marco Silva accepted the first half had been difficult for the home side but played down his role in producing a second-half performance of far greater intensity. “What I said at the interval was simple,” the Everton manager said. “I said in the second half we just have to do everything different. I was pleased with the response from the players, in the second half we showed our real selves.”
Everton have not beaten a top-six opponent in the Premier League since Ronald Koeman’s side thumped Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-0 in January 2017, a stat of which Silva claimed to be unaware.
“I didn’t know it had been so long, but all I want to say is that it cannot happen again,” Silva said. “This is too big a club for that to happen.”