Malo the Menace

Enzo Maresca's use of his full-backs is always one of the first things to look out for shortly after kick-off. Will Reece James be playing in midfield? Will the skipper be at right-back inverting inside? Will Marc Cucurella be pushing into an almost No.10-like role?

On Saturday, James was indeed starting in midfield and this time it was Gusto who was inverting from right-back to play inside next to his skipper, with Enzo Fernandez given license to push further forward alongside Palmer in a No.10 role. It proved to be an inspired choice.

Gusto and James dominated Chelsea's play in the first half, in particular, constantly finding space and getting on the ball, not only in our half but in Everton's too.

The average position graphic above highlights how much Gusto was playing centrally, and it delivered excellent results. The France international created our first goal with a superb through ball for Palmer, before beginning and ending our move for the second just before the break.

It is why Malo was voted Player of the Match by users of the Chelsea Official App and you can read our analysis of his performance by clicking here.

Cole doing Cole things

There was a sense that normality had returned when Palmer slotted home the opener on 21 minutes. After two months out and without a game at the Bridge since the opening day of the season, it was almost like he hadn't been away.

This wasn't his best performance in Blue. That's unsurprising considering the level he has reached in the past and with this being only his third outing since suffering a groin injury on September 20.

There were a few more wayward passes than we have become accustomed to but there were also flashes of quality which highlighted why he is widely considered to be one of the best No.10s in world football.

When Fofana picked up the ball inside our half on 21 minutes, Palmer already knew what the end result could be. He pointed for the centre-back to pass to the free Gusto and before the right-back had even received it, our No.10 had set off. His run behind the Everton defence was picked out perfectly by Gusto and the touch was as impeccable as always. All that was left was to finish confidently past his England team-mate Jordan Pickford at the near post.

There was also the disguised pass just after the half-hour mark and crucially for Maresca, lots of work off the ball, closing down the opposition, before he was substituted, as planned, on 58 minutes.

Speaking afterwards, Palmer acknowledged he was 'still nowhere near 100 per cent fitness and sharpness', as staff manage his return following the groin injury. But while the best may well be yet to come from Palmer, the sight of Cole scoring at the Bridge will never get old for Chelsea fans.

Blossoming partnership

No team has kept more clean sheets in the Premier League this season than Chelsea - Arsenal also have eight - and a big part of that has been the partnership of Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah.

The latter has recorded clean sheets alongside Josh Acheampong (2), Tosin (2) and Benoit Badiashile (1) this season, with the Blues keeping ten shutouts across all competitions.

But since Fofana's return to fitness at the beginning of November, Chelsea have kept five clean sheets in their six starts together in all competitions.

On Saturday, both men were outstanding. Not only did they defend their box well, there was a real passion to their defending, with the tackle on Iliman Ndiaye around the hour, Fofana's recovery challenge on 71 minutes and Chalobah's late block celebrated like they had scored a goal.

There were moments where our backline was breached - more on that later - but only conceding one goal in six starts together since November 1 - and even then it was when the Blues were down to ten men against Premier League leaders Arsenal - is evidence of an ever-improving partnership in the heart of our defence.

Sanchez saves

When Everton did manage to get past our impressive backline, they were met by an equally impressive Rob Sanchez.

The Blues No.1 was named PFA Fan's Player of the Month for November after keeping four clean sheets in six matches in all competitions and it was another complete showing from the keeper on Saturday.

With the game still very much in the balance at 1-0, he got his fingertips to a dangerous cross to deny what seemed a certain goal and he saved well to stop Jack Grealish at close range - who he also denied later on by tipping his header over the bar.

But it wasn't just his shot-stopping. It was the 28-year-old who claimed the cross and whose quick-thinking started the move which ended with Gusto grabbing our second. And the distribution with his feet was a threat too, as a great long ball ten minutes into the second half picked out Alejandro Garnacho behind Everton's backline, with the move ending with a one-on-one for the winger.

When Sanchez was finally beaten and rooted to the spot by Ndiaye's low shot late on, the ball rebounded off the post - he deserved that bit of luck.

No Premier League goalkeeper has kept more clean sheets than Sanchez so far this season. And Saturday showed just why.