The final game of the season and one that summed up Moyes’ tenure at Everton as the Blues were ousted by a strong Chelsea side 2-1 after a good performance from the away side.
An hour before kick off and Moyes’ last team news came through. A start for Steven Naismith was the only change for the injured Leon Osman. Chelsea made a host of changes from their last Premier League game over Aston Villa, with Luiz, Torres, Ake and Oscar coming in.
Evertonians felt that surely Moyes would go for it, and it looked like prayers were answered as Everton came out of the traps to match Chelsea and were playing a high tempo game with good football. Unfortunately for the away side the first chance came for Demba Ba, who produced a tame effort which Howard saved but spilled into the path of Juan Mata who duly finished. Chelsea took an early lead.
The Toffees replied brilliantly and produced a number of chances to get back in the game. Naismith put one wide and Gibson had a number of long range efforts that also went just wide. The chances came to effect as Everton levelled. David Luiz intercepted the ball and strode out of defence, but lost it as Victor Anichebe fed in Naismith who lofted it over Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal.
Within minutes Everton could have then gone ahead, as another long range Gibson effort was deflected onto the post and off Cech’s back into safety.
Everton, who were playing in the third kit, were arguably the better side for the rest of the first half, but the chances were few and far between for the men in white. Chelsea, sporting next seasons home kit, did have the two better chances, with Lampard firing wide and Ake shooting well over. Referee Anthony Taylor blew his whistle for half time.
As has been known under Moyes over the years and especially this season, the second half team talk seems to be wrong and this continued as Everton came out rather poorly, gifting chances to Chelsea through dire defending. Two scrappy corners led to chances for defenders Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic, and a rare passing error from Jagielka led to Ba having his effort go just wide.
To continue the ‘typical Moyes’ story, the travelling boss made two changes, as Nikica Jelavic and John Heitinga replaced Victor Anichebe and Steven Naismith. Fellaini went up top and Heitinga went into midfield. Despite the continued Chelsea dominance, it was Everton that had a great chance to take the lead when Baines nicked the ball, ran to the byline and crossed for a free Nikica Jelavic who missed from 5 yards after being unable to stretch and meet the ball properly.
The home side’s dominance did pay off in the end, as Victor Moses found himself free for a header towards goal, but actually decided to chest it off to Fernando Torres to smash home. 2-1.
This didn’t knock the spirit of Everton, as David Moyes’ men pressed forward for the final ten minutes, had a great chance through a Jelavic header but ultimately couldn’t score the second goal to equal the game.