Cole Palmer scored on his first Stamford Bridge start in almost four months as Chelsea beat Everton 2-0 to move back into the Premier League’s top four, but it was another attacking player taking all the plaudits.

Chelsea cruise past Everton 2-0

After four winless matches, Enzo Maresca could hardly have asked for a better moment for his most influential player to announce his return from the groin injury that has wrecked his season up to now, and it came in the 21st minute, the England forward sweeping his side into the lead from Malo Gusto’s clever pass.

Fresh from scoring a first-ever career goal in November, it was Gusto who then got the second from Pedro Neto’s cross before half-time.

Everton’s last win at Chelsea came in 1994 whilst David Moyes had never tasted victory on this ground. After four league wins in five and with the Blues in faltering form, it looked an opportune moment to settle both of those scores, but Maresca’s talisman ensured the day would be all about him.

This has been the most difficult year of Palmer’s career, suffering two significant injuries and making a fraction of the impact he enjoyed during his first 18 months at Chelsea His last goal from open play on this ground came in January, but when his chance came finally to correct that aberrant stat, he took it as though he had been banging them in all season.

Wesley Fofana played a short ball in midfield to Gusto, whose pass through the lines was wonderfully calibrated. Palmer’s run caught Everton cold and he breezed through the centre of their defence and smacked the ball by Jordan Pickford at his near post.

Alejandro Garnacho attempted the spectacular in search of Chelsea’s second with a wicked drive that cleared the bar by a fraction, then suffered a horror miss when he pounced on Carlos Alcaraz’s woeful pass but tapped wide of an open goal.

Chelsea’s second was delightfully simple. Neto made it, zipping around Vitalii Mykolenko on the right and crossing low for Gusto, arriving in the box at speed and knocking it past Pickford.

And it was the Portugal international who left former defender Stephen Warnock feeling relieved he is no longer playing, as he gushed about the 25 year-old during punditry duty for BBC.

Minutes

90

Assists

1

Dribbles (successful)

4 (2)

Duels (won)

11 (6)

Jack Grealish missed a golden chance to bring Everton back into it with a shot on the slide that sailed across goal and wide before Reece James was denied from a free-kick by a save by Pickford.

The final chance was Everton’s, Iliman Ndiaye rolling the ball against the post with Robert Sanchez beaten, but Chelsea by then had done enough.