Pedro Neto's brace sinks an Everton side that deserved more

Pedro Neto beat Everton pretty much on his own. Two goals, one right before halftime and another late on, gave Chelsea a 0-2 win at Hill Dickinson Stadium that, based on how the game actually played out, had looked out of reach for much of the afternoon for Xabi Alonso's side.

The match, part of the Premier League schedule, took time to open up. David Moyes' Everton came out swinging in the first half hour: Merlin Röhl, Thierno Barry (twice) and Jack Grealish tested Mike Penders, well, actually they tested Chelsea's goal before Penders even came on, without luck. Even Moises Caicedo rattled the crossbar with a shot in the 39th minute. The home side created more clear-cut chances than the visitors in that opening stretch, but couldn't turn them into goals.

Then came the blow. In the 45th minute, deep into first-half stoppage time, Pedro Neto finished with his left foot from the center of the box to make it 0-1. It was a gut punch right before the break, especially since Everton had been the sharper team up to that point.

In the second half Chelsea took control, with Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers causing constant trouble, though without finishing the job: Palmer missed several clear chances and Joao Pedro had a point-blank header that Pickford tipped onto the crossbar. Everton held on as best they could, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Thierno Barry pushing for an equalizer in the closing minutes, but the game was put to bed in the 89th minute: Pedro Neto, again with his left foot, curled home a direct free kick just inside the left post to make it a final 0-2.

The numbers behind a dominance that took time to show on the scoreboard

Chelsea ended up leading in nearly every statistical category, though the result took a while to catch up with that superiority.

What stands out is that Everton, despite fewer total shots, was more clinical: of their 6 attempts, 5 were on target, and by our post-match estimate they generated 0.606 expected goals against Chelsea's 1.725. The xG gap backs up the visitors' edge, but it doesn't fully explain a 0-2 scoreline on its own: Everton had a real case for scoring at least once.

Our pre-match preview had given Everton a 35% chance of winning, with a 28% chance of a draw and 37% for a Chelsea win, with combined expected goals of 2.91 (1.44 for the home side and 1.46 for the visitors). The final result ended up matching the visitors' slight edge as favorites, though the first-half script, with Everton closer to scoring, didn't quite fit that balanced projection.

What the result means

With this win, Chelsea moves to 13 points from 7 games played, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, sitting above Everton, who remain on 10 points after 2 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss so far this season. The gap between the two sides in the table is 3 points. For Everton, it's a bittersweet outcome: they competed on equal terms for long stretches, but Pedro Neto's finishing, with both goals of the match, ended up making the difference on the scoreboard.