Our Gameweek 31 Scout Notes continue with the main takeaways from Everton 3-0 Chelsea.
ANOTHER SANCHEZ HOWLER
Robert Sanchez (£4.8m) might have reclaimed his place for the time being but another difficult night for the Spaniard casts doubt over his longer-term starting prospects.
We don’t even know if Sanchez regained his starting spot on merit. Filip Jorgensen (£4.3m), himself unconvincing, is currently out with a groin issue. Reports suggest the Dane is back after the international break, so the week-to-week uncertainty resumes from then. Remember that Rosenior said recently he doesn’t have a “number one”, although it’s hard to take anything he says seriously.
Sanchez set the tone on Saturday by nearly gifting Beto (£5.0m) with an early goal, in the latest example of the ‘keeper being ill at ease with the ball at his feet. Was he too slow off his line for Beto’s opener, too? Perhaps we’re being harsh there.
There’s nothing harsh about the criticism for Beto’s second. The striker’s shot was well-hit but ultimately straight at Sanchez, who allowed the ball to squirm under his legs and over the line. Shot-stopping is meant to be his forte, too.
“I think it’s so difficult so quickly after a game to speak about an individual performance. For me, Rob is a top goalkeeper and goalkeepers have days like this. Pickford makes a world-class save to keep it 1-0.
“Now is not a time for talking. It’s a time for me and the staff to analyse.” – Liam Rosenior
Just as you’d be steering clear of the Chelsea ‘keepers due to game-time uncertainty, there’s also little going for the defenders. It’s one clean sheet in 15 Premier League matches now, not helped of course by the custodian clangers.
ROSENIOR PINNING HIS HOPES ON THE BREAK
While there’s some (very) just criticism, Chelsea have been a bit unlucky in the last fortnight. They seem to be conceding only ‘worldies’ or via blunders, with Iliman Ndiaye‘s (£6.2m) superb, win-sealing third the latest example of the former.
What would Saturday’s result have been had the goalkeepers switched sides? Jordan Pickford (£5.6m) produced a sensational stop to keep out Enzo Fernandez‘s (£6.6m) close-range effort, later tipping another effort from the Argentinean wide.
Last 4 matches:
Chelsea (5.70) 2-12 (4.84) Opponents
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) March 21, 2026
Make no mistake, though, Everton deserved to win. The more intense side from the outset, they became the latest club to outrun Chelsea.
Enzo sporadically threatened but the attack laboured like it did in midweek, with Joao Pedro (£7.8m) starved of service. He had fewer touches in this match (22) than he did in half an hour against Bournemouth (23) in Gameweek 19. Cole Palmer (£10.6m) occasionally flickered but ultimately ended up on an xG of 0.04, his fourth-lowest of the season.
The Blues just looked a bit knackered. Mentally spent, too.
Rosenior is pinning his hopes on an international break reset, a breather after the weekend-midweek turnarounds of the last three weeks. When we resume after the internationals, Chelsea will (mostly) be playing once a week for the rest of the season, with the one exception of a possible Double Gameweek.
“Why I think the international break has come at a good time for us is because hopefully those players get a change. Most of them have to fly across the world and play for their countries. But maybe a reset, maybe some time away to regather and have a different environment and come back may refresh the group.”
“When we come back, we’ll have a few clear weeks for the first time to work with the team on the training pitch. And within that time, we have to use it really well to lift the level of the performances and the results.” – Liam Rosenior
GARNERING PRAISE
“Jimmy Garner was the best player on the pitch, head and shoulders.” – David Moyes
Fresh from his first England call-up, James Garner (£5.2m) produced another superb display in the middle of the park.
Supplying Beto’s first goal with a superb threaded assist, he’s now delivered something (attacking return or DefCon points) in 13 of the last 16 Gameweeks.
Looking at cheapo midfielders, both Garner and teammate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) are even above the much-vaunted Elliot Anderson (£5.5m) for points per match this season:
DefCon is a huge part of Garner’s appeal (he’s second among midfielders for those), even though he missed out on Saturday. But he also has the assist potential, helped by being Everton’s main corner taker. Dewsbury-Hall, interestingly, has ceded his own role on set plays over the last four weeks.
Dewsbury-Hall does look the likelier of the two to bag a goal. Garner may have outshot him over the season but the former tends to get the better chances, and he almost scored in the closing stages here to make it 4-0.
As for Ndiaye, we mentioned about Chelsea conceding worldies and clangers; Ndiaye seems to specialise in worldies and penalties and little in between.
TARKOWSKI RETURNS
Beto’s 16-point haul was the headline from this game. Almost half (three of seven) of his season’s attacking returns came in this one match! Can it kickstart a scoring run like the one he had when Moyes first arrived? You’d have your reservations based on his previous profligacy, even though £5.0m is a very attractive price.
Everton’s defence is historically more trustworthy. This was their 11th clean sheet of 2025/26, a total that only the top two can better.
James Tarkowski (£5.7m) returned from a very brief lay-off to start, although another Gameweek 30 absentee, Jarrad Branthwaite (£5.3m), had to make do with substitute duty. He may well be continually managed till the end of the season, and you’d just avoid him and Michael Keane (£4.6m) for that reason. Tarkowski is the more nailed pick at centre-half, although strangely his DefCon points – he’s gained them just once in the last eight Gameweeks – have dried up.
Everton don’t have the easiest run over the next four Gameweeks, with even West Ham United resurgent. There’ll be no Double Gameweeks for the Toffees, either, although the final three matches of the campaign look decent.
