Jorginho's penalty helps Chelsea to rare win at Everton

Khalidou Koulibaly stretched to clear from Anthony Gordon in his debut on Saturday. Chelsea beat Everton 1-0. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

Chelsea traveled to Goodison Park for their premier league opening game of the season and left with a hard fought three points after Jorginho’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win.

Chelsea started new signings Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly while Everton handed debut to James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil, both joined from Burnley after the Clarets got relegated from the premier league last season.

Both sides went for it from the start but Chelsea had the upper hand.

Many expected the Blues to run over the Toffees considering the situation of things with Frank Lampard’s side but the premier league knows how to serve surprises.

It took a silly error from Everton’s midfield enforcer Abdoulaye Doucoure to help Chelsea to the lead.

The Frenchman bundled over Ben Chilwell and the referee pointed to the spot.

Jorginho beat Jordan Pickford from six yards out and with that goal, the Italian has scored from the spot three times on opening days.

Everton had fine spells in the game, Alex Iwobi orchestrated from the middle and Anthony Gordon offered something strong going forward but lack of a proper striker denied Everton anything good in terms of end product.

Dominic Calvert Lewin is injured and Salomon Rondon served the last of his three-match ban so he was watching from the stands.

Chelsea will sweat on their defence with Koulibaly limping off in the second half while Everton also lost Yeri Mina and Ben Godfrey to injuries in the game.

Marc Cucurella came on late for his Chelsea debut and it was clear to see why he was highly sought-after.

Everton’s season could be a long one if they don’t get things right in the current window; McNeil had an underwhelming debut but Dele Alli’s introduction made McNeil looked like he played well.