Everton 'fight' shown up by Chelsea as two meltdowns spark new concerns

Picking a pass

A couple of years ago, while managing Everton, Chelsea legend ‘Super’ Frankie Lampard – as his banner displayed here across the Shed End says – described Jordan Pickford’s save from Cesar Azpilicueta as not just the best in the Premier League that season (an award it received) but the most-outstanding of the entire Premier League era.

In this correspondent’s humble opinion it was as impressive as any stop that the great Neville Southall ever made, and you cannot pay Pickford a higher compliment than that as a goalkeeper for Everton or indeed any club. So as a player who has done as much as anybody in this team in keeping the Blues in the top flight in recent seasons, the former Sunderland man has as much credit in the bank as anyone.

However, after making what Opta officially deemed to be his first error leading to an opposition goal in 60 England internationals when club colleague Amadou Onana intercepted his clearance against Belgium at Wembley, picking out Youri Tielemans to score, Pickford also committed another mistake with his footwork here. Yes, he switched Jarrad Branthwaite’s back pass on to his weaker right foot but for any top class keeper – especially one who prides himself on his distribution – it was a howler to play the ball straight to Cole Palmer to gift the Chelsea youngster his hat-trick.

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Jarring night

When these two sides met back in December, Jarrad Branthwaite enjoyed what was one of his most-imperious displays of a hugely-impressive breakthrough season in the Premier League, making a string of crucial