Everton 1-0 Chelsea: Everton put on outstanding display - Frank Lampard

With a long run in England's top flight stretching back to 1954,Everton aren't about to give up their status among the elite without a fight.

fireworks and smoke bombs played a part in their critical win over Chelsea.

Jordan Pickford was the leading star, despite Richarlison's winner, because of two second-half saves worthy of their own script.

Goodison Park rose in unison to applaud England's number one when he denied Cesar Azpilicueta and Antonio Rudiger in quick succession.

That was recognition of what was at stake, by a crowd who played a huge part in the victory which closed the gap on both sides.

They started the day five points from safety and were trying to stay in the top-flight. They have a history of going down from the premier league, so some pundits debated if they would be the biggest club to go down.

It was appropriate that Pickford used his skills to deny Rudiger with a point-blank save.

Leon Osman said that Pickford's saves have kept the dreams alive.

Azpilicueta's save was incredible. Pickford has been criticized in the past because of his tendency to do something rash. But not today. It was his best game for the club, in the most important game of the season.

The fans knew how important this was and if they had lost, they would have felt like they were out of the league.

'The fans were the people of the match'

Everton fans
Everton fans showed their support before the match at Goodison Park

Thousands of fans lined the streets to welcome the team bus at Goodison Park. Blue flares were fired down Goodison Road as supporters sang about the Grand Old Team.

It might have been the reason for some fans to create their own firework display in front of the team hotel on Saturday night.

In a season where they haven't won away since August, the atmosphere once again dragged the team to new heights and underscored how important the fans will be.

The escort from fans gave the players a chance to understand what it meant to the fans.

If it doesn't get you ready to go out and give everything, then you shouldn't be playing the game.

The fans were the people of the match. The men, the women, the children that came and did that before the game, in the warm up, at the start of the game and also to get us over the line late in the game, was huge.

Seamus Coleman, who along with Yerry Minad typified the aggressive approach against Chelsea, said: "I have been here a long time but never felt like I did today."

He said he would leave it to the fans if they replicated it for the remaining home games.

He highlighted how important it was for his side to improve their away form in order to stay up.

'Prodding Richarlison'

Everton's Richarlison
Richarlison threw a smoke flare back towards the stands after scoring

He admitted before his fourth win in 13 games that he was taking a harder approach with his players.

Richarlison talked about how he needed to be more clinical and pressing, with the Brazilian rewarding Lampard with a ninth goal of the season after harrying Azpilicueta into a mistake.

It was important for the players to hear about the reality of the situation.

You can keep telling the players to believe, but there are other times where we have to stop.

We know what the table said before the game so we need to be good and show good effort to stay in this league.

The players have delivered the extra bit of tension and discipline that I felt we needed.

There is going to be more tension as the game goes on, but I think there is a long way to go in this.

We can control our games, but we can not control other teams. It won't make a difference unless we do our thing, as much as we sit and stare at our phones and analyse their remaining games.

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