Conte must hope performances this dominant do not undermine his insistence with the board that strengthening is still desperately required. The champions benefited here from Everton having been overwhelmed as much by an onerous schedule as the home side’s persuasive football. The visitors did not muster a single shot on target all afternoon and always appeared utterly incapable of retrieving the two‑goal deficit shipped before the break. Jordan Pickford had already thwarted a series of Chelsea efforts before the visitors eventually cracked, their concentration fractured at a quickly taken free-kick. Their own pursuit of a forward would appear to be just as pressing as Chelsea’s search for senior bodies.

Source: The Guardian August 27, 2017 14:37 UTC