Everton’s last two appearances in London had been in court.
Set against Monday’s 6-0 defeat to Chelsea, they were arguably both more enjoyable experiences.
Earlier on Monday, Everton officially lodged an appeal against a second points deduction for breaking the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) — ensuring there will be one more trip to London before this season’s final day. There have already been protests at the league’s headquarters.
From Paddington, dive south through Hyde Park, past the Royal Albert Hall, and turn west onto the Fulham Road. A trip to Chelsea symbolises the extent to which some teams are more immune to PSR laws than others. Everton had to sell Anthony Gordon to Newcastle United in an attempt to remain compliant — Chelsea could buy England squad rival Cole Palmer for a similar sum, despite having already spent almost £1billion ($1.24bn) in transfers.
Then, despite Chelsea making the largest pre-tax loss in the league last season (£90.1million), they managed to fit underneath their PSR ceiling by selling a club-owned hotel to a company run by chairman Todd Boehly. The cliche is that football is a game of chess; in the miles around Mayfair, it has turned into a game of Monopoly.
Monopoly, at its heart, is a game of risk and debt. Everton have been playing it for several years. Seven months ago today, Everton took out a £158million loan from MSP Sports Capital, with the Premier League imposing a deadline of midnight on Monday night for the debt to be repaid.
Prospective new owners 777 asked MSP to extend the repayment deadline on its loan — but that contravenes one of the conditions which the Premier League had set for the takeover to be completed. It was only after the full-time whistle that reports emerged that MSP had agreed a short extension, with the private equity firm holding the action to take a controlling stake in Everton as collateral. In theory, Farhad Moshiri could have lost control of the club on Monday night.
Amid such uncertainty, what is there to be certain of? Everton’s fans sang like a church congregation battling their way through doubt. A chorus of ‘Spirit of the Blues’ rose after five minutes, but that was the only spirit there was.
What is certain is that Beto had to score after five minutes, found unmarked by Seamus Coleman within the six-yard box, except what transpired has been seen before. The cross cannons off his knee and over the bar.
(Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images)
What is certain is that Everton should not have given Cole Palmer that much space, though, in fairness, Palmer makes the space himself. The 21-year-old nutmegged Jarrod Branthwaite, backheeled the ball around Amadou Onana to Nicolas Jackson, before curling it around James Tarkowski into the bottom corner.
What is certain is that Everton are unlikely to come back. By this point, the fans in the Shed End have stopped singing — but if you know your history, you will know that Everton do not come from behind. They have not won a Premier League match from a losing position since September 2022, and have never done it under Dyche. In turn, Palmer heads in a Jordan Pickford save to double Chelsea’s lead, just five minutes after the opener.
What is certain is that Palmer will score when he gets another chance from Pickford’s inaccurate effort to break Chelsea’s lines, even though it is on his right foot, even though it is 40 yards out. Thirty seconds after the game restarts for a fourth time, he brings the ball down on his chest at halfway; his first glance is upwards to check for the shot.
What is certain is that Beto’s 34th-minute consolation was offside — and in the flow of this match, 34 minutes was not too early for a consolation — because of course it was: a clear offside, with clear air between him and the defender.
By this time, Everton’s body language is stagnant. Onana and Abdoulaye Doucoure argue in the centre circle, hands on hips. When Onana slices a cross out for a goal kick, Dwight McNeil gesticulates at his team-mate’s back. On this night, Everton are a team who are standoffish with each other, never mind Chelsea. Jackson’s usual issue is composure, but after 44 minutes Everton’s centre-backs retreat as if giving themselves the space to apply a cool flannel to the striker’s forehead.
And what is certain is that Onana should not have been sharing a joke with Malo Gusto as the teams walked off at half-time, with Everton 4-0 down. He is taken off as part of three half-time changes.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
In the second half, Everton’s drama is shuttled onto a smaller screen as Chelsea are awarded a penalty, the humiliation that with just over an hour gone, the opposition are arguing over whose turn it is to score. Palmer wins the debate, and it is certain that Palmer will score; since the start of March, he has scored 10 goals to Everton’s four, registering the same number of goals in one evening as Everton have scored in their last six matches combined.
It is worth reiterating. The one overwhelming certainty is that Everton’s players were powerless, not just metaphorically but on the grass. There is almost a decade of mismanagement behind that situation, not one bad week of training. Sean Dyche was powerless, reduced to pushing players around the pitch like nonagenarian sliding dominos.
And Moshiri, flanked in a box between director of football Kevin Thelwell and 777 chief of staff Josh Dreyfus, was now equally powerless, rendered impotent by his past decisions. If MSP had called in the loan, as was their right, his stewardship of Everton could have been over by morning.
Sunday will see Everton host Nottingham Forest, two clubs linked by more than their shared orbit of the Premier League’s plughole. That was, and still is, the week’s most important fixture. Of course, Everton were unlikely to defeat Chelsea, a superior side by almost every metric. But Everton should not have lost to Chelsea like this; it was the sort of defeat that splits squads and leaves psychological scars. There are six days to heal.
What is certain is that the decisions at Everton’s head are percolating onto the pitch, and whatever this is, Everton’s fans do not deserve it.
(Header photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
