Silva Delighted With Everton Fightback

Everton manager Marco Silva was delighted with the way his side bounced back to beat Chelsea 2-0 at home on Sunday. The visitors dominated possession and territory in the opening half at Goodison Park as the home side looked all over the place, but it was different after the break.

Everton were rejuvenated and sealed a 2-0 win by virtue of Richarlison’s header shortly after the restart and Gylfi Sigurdsson scoring on the rebound after his 72nd-minute penalty was saved. The result was a first win against a top-six side since January 2017 for Everton, when they demolished Manchester City 4-0 on Merseyside.

Silva stressed it is the sort of run which has to be eradicated if they are to fulfil their ambition of challenging the established Premier League elite. “I didn’t know these numbers before the match,” he told reporters. “It is something which cannot happen again because it is not a normal thing for a club like us, so many times not winning against these strong sides.

“It is not an easy thing but it is something we should be able to do more times – even this season we have had opportunities to to this.” After such a disappointing opening 45 minutes, Silva said he knew he had to rally the players at half-time. “It was too clear the difference,” he said. “I said to our players something simple: ‘We have to do something different if we want to win the game’.”