Chelsea 3-1 Everton

Goals from Daniel Sturridge, John Terry and Ramires condemned Everton to defeat at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

Substitute Apostolos Vellios added a late consolation 18 seconds after being introduced, but the points stay in London after a largely disappointing performance from the away side.

Prior to this afternoon we had not lost at Chelsea on each of our last 6 visits, although our form had hit a recent trough - indeed, the defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool were our first consecutive losses in over 60 games.

Despite the official Everton Facebook page listing our line-up as having 12 players (Moyesie you caniving bastard!) the eleven that took to the field were; Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Osman, Rodwell, Fellaini, Coleman, Cahill, Saha.

That side was unchanged from the derby defeat, which meant that Royston Drenthe and Apostolos Vellios were again restricted to the bench. They were joined by Mucha, Heitinga, Bilyaletdinov, Stracqualursi and Neville. There was, to the dismay of many supporters, no place in the squad for young Ross Barkley.

Everton started the game reasonably brightly. Louis Saha looked lively up front and had our first real opportunity after about 10 minutes when his shot was blocked by Petr Čech in the Chelsea goal. At the other end Sylvain Distin did well to intervene and prevent Ramires from gaining a clear sight of goal.

Shortly afterwards a fantastic last-ditch tackle from John Obi Mikel denied Marouane Fellaini a shooting opportunity inside the six-yard box, but it was Chelsea who started to take control of the game and who looked more likely to deliver the opening blow.

That's exactly what happened. On 31 minutes Juan Mata played a worldy of a pass into the path of Ashley Cole and England's second best left-back teed up Daniel Sturridge, who could hardly miss with his header from 3 yards out.

Chelsea doubled their advantage on the stroke of half time when John Terry headed in Frank Lampard's free-kick amid some unconvincing goalkeeping from Tim Howard. That was effectively game over with the result a formality from thereon in.

Within 15 seconds of the restart Leon Osman had grazed the post with a quick-fire effort, but that was just about it in terms of our attacking intent for the next 25 minutes.

The ineffective Seamus Coleman was replaced by Royston Drenthe shortly before Chelsea added a third goal. Didier Drogba sent in a low cross for Ramires to have the simple task of slotting home from inside the six-yard box. Game well and truly over - if it wasn't already.

So, 3-0 down. Who's going to score us a hat-trick?

Phil Neville, of course.

In an absolutely baffling managerial decision David Moyes removed Tim Cahill and threw on the constant goal threat that is captain Neville. Baffling.

Moyes' third and final substitution, however, did yield a consolation goal. It was Greek striker Apostolos Vellios who came on - belatedly in the opinion of many a supporter - and made an immediate impact. 18 seconds had passed between his crossing of the white line and the ball crashing into the Chelsea net.

He simply HAS to start next week.

Chelsea almost added a fourth in injury time but 3-1 was how it finished. It's not as if we should have expected anything from the game but the nature of the defeat made for a thoroughly disappointing evening.

StickyToffee Player Ratings: Howard 4, Hibbert 4, Jagielka 3, Distin 5, Baines 5, Coleman 3, Rodwell 4, Fellaini 4, Cahill 5, Osman 4, Saha 5.

Subs: Drenthe 5, Neville 4, VELLIOS 5.