Everton 2-0 Chelsea: But for abysmal defending late on, I didn't think we were THAT bad!

Romelu Lukaku put an end to Chelsea's season on Saturday night with two goals to dump us out of the FA Cup and our last hope of silverware this season. I am staggered by the outcry after the game I have seen such as here on Football news at BetHut.com, as I did not think we played that badly!

For 78 minutes we were well in the game and had created arguably the best chance to score as Diego Costa dragged a shot from an almost impossible distance across the goal-line wide. Up to that point Thibaut Courtois was not really tested at full stretch to deny the home side.

We looked OK at the back and the combination of Matic and Mikel in front of the back four provided a decent screen. The problem we had was getting players up to and around Diego Costa to support him. For example, Cesc Fabregas who had been pushed up into the number ten role, found himself dropping deeper to pick the ball up which at times left a huge gap between our midfield and the Spanish striker.

Pedro back from injury was busy enough but had little contribution of note to talk about. Willian had another quiet game apart from a free-kick in the first half that was pushed over the bar. Some people have mentioned on Social Media that he looks burnt out which I tend to agree with so it was no surprise to see Oscar come on to replace him.

Diego Costa is making headlines for what looked like it was going to be a bite on Gareth Barry but you could see clearly that he didn't do anything after having second thoughts with Barry and Costa releasing statements to confirm that he never did anything of the sort. How the FA will see that we are yet to discover but we cannot argue with the sending off for retaliation and receiving a second yellow for doing so.

Everton had a plan for Costa and that was to kick him all over the pitch. Numerous times he has caught or clipped and the Referee seemed to be oblivious to 90% of the incidents playing out in front of him.

Gareth Barry was also sent off for two yellows and I am glad he was because what he got away with and Phil Jagielka during the game was a joke. Both had made at least three or four fouls before being summoned to the Ref for a talking to.

It wasn't just those two either, Coleman, Funes Mori, Baines and others all had a go at Costa during the course of the game. With the Ref for the most part not giving anything, you could see why Costa would become frustrated.

Back to the game itself and as I say we were more than in the game up to 78 minutes and then it changed. You see, what has been Chelsea's problem without JT in that back four is our positional play. For the most part in games it's good but then someone gets carried away with themselves, loses their defensive discipline and shape and it costs us a goal. Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill were to blame against PSG and for the Everton first goal (which was scandalous by the way) Branislav Ivanovic needs to take the wrap this time.

Lukaku makes a run out wide down our right hand side. Why on earth has he followed him out to the byline? Why not let Azpi do that with one of the defensive midfielders or attacking midfielders down that side do that? Why has he let himself be sucked out of position which makes it easy for Lukaku to beat both him and Azpi by knocking the ball inside? Mikel has to pull out of a challenge as the Belgian strides into the box just in case he brings him down in the box and he then left one-on-one with Cahill who is left exposed?

It was embarrassing defending to say the least. Cahill was left looking like a headless Chicken in the box and Courtois was beaten far too easy for my liking too! Abysmal defending which cost us AGAIN. We need JT in there to organise, to talk to people and most importantly of all, to pull them back into position. If JT was fit enough to be named on the bench then he should have started in my opinion. Guus Hiddink got that WRONG!

As for the second goal its another demonstration of two-bob defending to which I don't even want to talk about because you have all seen it for yourselves! What I will say is that why is it after the event that the Chelsea players are accusing each other when none of them stood up and at least tried to make a tackle to win the ball!? I'd like to point out that again Courtois was beaten far too easy!

Once that second goal went in it was game over and for the 6,000 fantastic Chelsea fans that made the long journey there and back, I really felt for all of you. For 78 minutes we were well in the game and then it all fell apart.

Chelsea now must re-focus our efforts and try and obtain as many points as possible from our remaining games in the Premier League now. I'd like to see Alexandre Pato given and start and also Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the remaining games to see how they do.

It's been a shit season for all concerned despite one or two pleasing results and performances along the way. Whoever comes in the summer has a job on!

What did you think and be realistic?