David Moyes reveals one thing that was 'really poor' about Everton's performance against Chelsea

David Moyes rued Everton’s lack of set-piece quality in their defeat by Chelsea.

The Toffees suffered a 1-0 loss at Stamford Bridge and have won only one of their past nine games. Everton have been in a tough run of fixtures - with their previous five games against the teams who occupy five of the top-six places in the Premier League table.

Nicholas Jackson netted the only goal of the game in the first half for Chelsea. The visitors were lacklustre in the opening 45 minutes but did improve after the interval when substitutions were made. Still, Moyes was unhappy that deliveries from corners and free-kicks were not up to scratch.

“We were much better in the second half. We were poor in the first half, but I think the subs made a big difference today,” Moyes told Everton’s club website. “I think all of them came on and helped us, which is something we want. We didn't have it against Man City last week, but I thought today they did do it. So there was positives in the game we can take.

“I thought we started to control the game a little bit more [in the second half]. I thought the intensity and the speed of Chelsea in the first 30 minutes just about blew us away. We nearly couldn't win a second ball, a first ball. We were second to everything. We absolutely got squashed by their speed and power in the first period. So I thought maybe they might have run out of a wee bit of energy in the second half, which allowed us to get more control and we kept going and grinded out a decent second-half performance.

“While we were 1-0 down, we were hugely in the game. Over recent months since I've been in, we've been nicking a goal, maybe a late equaliser. We’ve not done that the past couple of games but you look at the opposition – Man City and Chelsea – it’s not easy. But we need to take our chances.

“Our set pieces were really poor today. It’s no good thinking you’re going to need to score one every so often, you need to score them all the time against the big sides because you’re not going to get many.”

Moyes was forced to change his defence against Chelsea, with James Tarkowski ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. Jake O’Brien was switched to centre-back, with Nathan Patterson coming in on the right-hand side.

Moyes added: “We're obviously trying to find new things. Big Jake going to centre-half and Patto getting a game at right back. We’re having to find out a little bit more about the players who are in the squad and see what their capabilities are.

“I think the players have fared really well [over the past five matches]. We’ve not been out of any game in what has been a really difficult period. It never feels good if you lose two but we were in all of the games, we had chances and moments to get more out of them. I think the players have done really well. They’ve got great heart, great appetite and they do their best in every game they play.”