Everton 0-2 Chelsea: Neto shines to end Moyes' unbeaten start

Pedro Neto's second-half brace secured Chelsea a 2-0 win over Everton, whose unbeaten start to the Premier League season came to an end.

An entertaining first half did not result in any goals, though Moises Caicedo hit the woodwork, and Neto was the star in a dominant Chelsea showing after the break.

He scored within the first minute of the second half and then secured all three points in the 90th minute, profiting from some poor Everton defending.

The hosts started well, with Emiliano Martinez holding onto Merlin Rohl's drilled effort, before getting fully behind Thierno Barry's glancing header on the set-piece.

Jack Grealish's bouncing volley then needed to be tipped over the bar before Vitalii Mykolenko skilfully opened up space to tee up Barry, who could only poke at Martinez on the turn.

After a couple of flashpoints, Chelsea finished the first half on top, with Caicedo smacking a powerful strike against the crossbar while unmarked during a corner.

And Maxence Lacroix got in front of his marker on another set-piece just before half-time, but his flicked header was cleared off the line by Harrison Armstrong.

Chelsea made a fast start after the break, though, with Morgan Rogers – who may have counted himself lucky to be still on the pitch after a crunching 50-50 tackle with James Garner while he was already on a booking – linking up well with Jorrel Hato on the left, and the deflected cross was turned home by Neto.

Rogers continued to cause problems, with his first-time effort blocked by Rohl before Palmer attempted to catch Pickford out from the edge of the box, but the ball ended up in the stands.

Martinez was stretchered off in the 75th minute with a head injury, and though Everton tried to apply late pressure to Mike Penders, they were instead caught out at the other end as Pickford made himself big to deny Joao Pedro following a Palmer-led counter-attack.

Chelsea eventually breached Everton's defence again ahead of a lengthy 11 minutes of stoppage time. Jordan Henderson's free-kick hit the wall, but the Toffees did not clear their lines, and Neto reacted quickest to slot into the bottom-left corner.

Neto finds his groove on Merseyside

Chelsea have not had a lot of joy on their recent travels to Everton, winning just one of their previous nine such Premier League games (D2 L6) prior to this one, and they lost their first match at Hill Dickinson Stadium 3-0 last season.

However, Xabi Alonso's side made it back-to-back league wins, scoring as many goals on Saturday as they did in their last nine visits, though they had to ride their luck at times, especially in the first half.

Having netted twice in the opening three minutes against Bournemouth last time out, it was a slow start by Chelsea's standards, with this being the second-longest they have had to wait for a goal in the Premier League this season.

Tensions were high in the first half, with five yellow cards, though things settled down after the break, helped by Neto's goal. He has now scored more Premier League goals (12) for Chelsea (76 appearances) than he did for Wolves (111 apps).

This also marked the first time Neto has scored twice in a game in his 187th Premier League appearance.

But while the goals – and ultimately the win – will please Alonso, it is their defensive work that will bring him the most joy as they kept their first Premier League clean sheet in 23 games, ending their long wait for a Premier League shutout.