Everton returned to winning ways as Goodison Park caretaker boss Duncan Ferguson steered the Toffees to a great victory at the weekend.
Everton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin has lifted the lid on the conversation that Goodison Park interim boss Duncan Ferguson had with the Toffees players ahead of their Premier League weekend win (Everton website).
Everton coach and Toffees legend Ferguson took the Toffees reins on a caretaker basis after Marco Silva left the Goodison Park role last week.
The Blues hierarchy decided to axe the Portuguese following a severe downturn in form which culminated in Everton dropping into the relegation zone.
Everton are in the middle of a difficult run of games and it looked a tall order as Chelsea came to Goodison Park in Saturday’s early Premier League kickoff.
However, the Toffees were transformed and invigorated as they put Frank Lampard’s side to the sword in a superb 3-1 win, Schneiderlin – one of Silva’s most utilised players but also the subject of much fan criticism in recent months – putting in one of his best performances for a while.
“We know as a team we have the quality, we have been saying this since the first day but we just lacked something,” Schneiderlin told the Everton website. “Everything went very quickly (after Ferguson took the reins). He had a brief meeting with us (on Friday morning), saying he wanted us to train and work hard and he would talk to us at night in the hotel.
“On Friday night he said some very important things. That he wanted commitment and aggression and to see what Everton was about. The main thing was to work hard and fight for every ball and that’s what we did. It always feels very good when you win a game. The past couple of days were hard for us mentally and physically and on Saturday we gave a good shift So the result was a good reward for us.”
Richarlison struck after just five minutes played at Goodison Park, spreading play out wide to Djibril Sidibe before timing his run to meet the right-back’s cross and nodding past Kepa.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin then doubled the Toffees’ lead shortly after the interval, slotting through the Chelsea keeper’s legs after nipping the ball off Kurt Zouma.
Although Mateo Kovacic halved the deficit, Calvert-Lewin then struck again, another defensive mishap from the visitors ensuring Ferguson and his charges claimed a vital three points.
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