Jorginho converted from a spot kick late on in the first half to steer Chelsea to a narrow 1-0 win over Everton in Saturday’s Premier League opener for Thomas Tuchel’s men.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS
Chelsea started the Goodison Park showdown strong and Mason Mount was the first player for the Blues to force Jordan Pickford into an early save.
A well timed header from James Tarkowski saw Chelsea’s goalie Edouard Mendy produce a fantastic stop to tip it over the bar in Everton’s first real chance of the game.
Raheem Sterling, making his debut league outing in the Chelsea shirt, thought he had scored after N’Golo Kante’s effort bounced off Pickford but Sterling’s celebrations were short-lived with the offside flag raised.
Heading into the close of the opening 45 minutes, Ben Chilwell was stopped in his tracks by Everton midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure who pulled back the Chelsea wing-back and gave away a penalty.
Jorginho was clinical as ever from the spot with the midfield man sending Pickford the wrong way to give his side the lead.
The second period saw Everton make attempts to find a way back into the game but the Chelsea defence held strong to secure their narrow one-goal advantage.
Tuchel rang in a host of changes from the bench with new signing Marc Cucurella also being introduced as he took the place of another new recruit in Koulibaly.
The visitors got themselves over the finish line despite lengthy stoppage time to secure the three points up for grabs in a winning start to the new season.
