C/CUP: Chelsea 2-1 Everton

Chelsea players celebrate

Antonio Rudiger and Willian scored as Chelsea beat Everton 2-1 in an entertaining Carabao Cup fourth-round clash.

Everton, with caretaker boss David Unsworth in charge of team affairs following the departure of Ronald Koeman on Monday, played well though, particularly in the second half.

Wayne Rooney had an early shot blocked but, when play swung to the other end of the pitch, Phil Jagielka did well to get in the way of Michy Batshuayi’s shot.

Antonio Conte’s team opened the scoring in the 26th minute when Rudiger stretched to head a towering header home following Charly Musonda’s excellent cross.

Jordan Pickford then kept out Batshuayi’s effort while, just before half time, an Ashley Williams error let in Willian who crossed for Davide Zappacosta to fire into the side-netting.

Everton pressed for an equaliser after the interval and Rooney almost scored in the 55th minute only for his volley to be deflected away for a corner before Willy Caballero’s mistake nearly let in Aaron Lennon.

As tempers threatened to boil over a rash of yellow cards were shown but the match opened up as play swung from one end to the other with Caballero having to be alert to stop Cesc Fabregas scoring an own goal.

Chelsea continued to create chances of their own though and Jagielka was forced to clear the ball off the line before Willian made it 2-0 in stoppage time.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin halved the deficit with virtually the last kick of the match but it was too little too late for the Toffees.