Everton 1-2 Chelsea: A Tale of Three Goalkeepers

Ross Turnbull, Petr Cech and Jan Mucha all featured heavily in Chelsea's heart-attack Carling Cup win at Goodison Park last night. I always shudder when Turnbull is named in the starting-line, I am on the negative vibe immediately more than I normally am.

However Turnbull gets all the credit for an excellent performance right-up to his sending-off on 60mins after bringing down Saha in the penalty area whilst trying to defend a 'liability' Luiz clearance.

On came Cech, replacing Lukaku, to face a Leighton Baines penalty.

Not only did Cech save the penalty (WHAT????) he dived bravely at Baines's feet to save the rebound.

From that moment Chelsea were under siege and Cech's brilliance kept Chelsea in the lead given to them when Everton's Jan Mucha allowed an extremely soft Kalou cross/shot slip through his hands, in the first-half.

Both ball and Mucha ended up right at the back of Everton's net, in front of the home fans.

Earlier on in the half, a lazy Anelka penalty awarded after McEachran was brought down, saw Anelka hit the ball wide of Mucha's left-hand post.

Chelsea's nemesis, Louis Saha, eventually grabbed Everton's equaliser when he headed home from close-range from a cross supplied by Coleman.

Cech continued to defy Everton in the remaining minutes therefore taking the game into extra-time.

So after two missed penalties and a sending-off, extra-time was still fraught and frantic.

Everton's Drenthe became the second player of the night to be shown the red card after his clumsly challenge on Ryan Bertrand whilst chasing a long ball.

Four minutes from the end of extra-time, captain for the night, Malouda hit a powerful shot which Mucha could only parry away, the ball fed straight into Danny Sturridge's path and the striker hit the ball home to give Chelsea the 2-1 victory.

A hard-fought, entertaining, thrilling, heart-attack victory.

Everton: Mucha, Neville (c) (Hibbert h/t), Heitinga, Distin, Baines, Fellaini, Drenthe, Cahill, Rodwell (Stracqualursi 78), Bilyaletdinov (Coleman 80), Saha

Goal: Saha 83

Booked: Fellaini 19, Drenthe 74

Sent Off: Drenthe 106

Chelsea: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Alex, Luiz, Bertrand, McEachran (Mikel 63), Romeu, Malouda (c), Anelka, Lukaku (Cech 59), Kalou (Sturridge 85)

Goals: Kalou 38, Sturridge 116

Booked: Alex 22, Mikel 75

Sent Off: Turnbull 58

NEXT UP: Arsenal (h), League, Saturday 29/10/11, k.o. 12.45pm

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