It was certainly a case of 'save the best for last', as Everton and Chelsea played out a 9 goal thriller at Goodison Park.

Chelsea came out the blocks firing with two goals in the first three minutes. New signing Diego Costa, starting despite being an injury risk pre match with a hamstring injury, opened the scoring in the first minute. Costa appears to be justifying his £32million price tag, as he scored his third goal in three games for the Blues, whose striker problem appears to be over.

Branislav Ivanovic scored the second for Chelsea after slotting the ball past Tim Howard despite appearing offside in the replays. This left Everton stunned, who had a two goal deficit to make up, not the start manager Roberto Martinez was hoping for.

Despite the setback, Everton showed they weren't going to let Chelsea dominate, as Sylvain Distin had a goal disallowed for offside. He was first on hand to former Chelsea man Romelu Lukaku's shot which cannoned off the bar.

On the stroke of half time Belgian winger Kevin Mirallas was first to a cross from Seamus Coleman, who glanced it past Thibaut Courtois to send the Toffees in 2-1 down at half time.

The game remained fairly even until the 67th minute, as chaos ensued. Eden Hazard ran past the Everton defence and got in behind them, running the ball down the byline and taking a shot which deflected off Coleman's leg and past Tim Howard.

This began a madcap ten minutes as the two sides exchanged goals galore. Steven Naismith rolled the ball home after Lukaku's deceiving run fooled Chelsea's defence, allowing Naismith to slot it home with the outside of his boot.

Nemanja Matic then scored after a deflection from Phil Jagielka. Then another big moment came up as Samuel Eto'o, former Chelsea striker and new Everton signing, came off the bench and scored within two minutes of Matic's goal.

By now it was more of a tennis game as Ramires scored a minute after Eto'o's finish. Chelsea appeared to have the game won at 5-3, they brought on club legend Didier Drogba, and Everton substitute Mohammed Besic was arguably to blame for Chelsea's sixth.

The new signing tried a backheel which only ended up landing to John Obi Mikel, who ran the ball at the Everton defence and set up Diego Costa with a well placed pass and Costa showed his deadly touch with a shot with Howard was never going to reach.

Despite the win manager Jose Mourinho will be disappointed with the amount of goals conceded against Everton. Roberto Martinez will have some encouragement from the way Everton regrouped after going 2-0 down so early.

Also with news Loic Remy is poised to join the Blues over the next couple of days, Mourinho won't be short of striking options, despite letting Fernando Torres depart to Milan.

VAVEL Ratings

Everton Chelsea
Howard 5 Courtois 7
Coleman 6 Ivanovic 7
Distin 5 Cahill 7
Jagielka 4 Terry 6
Baines 6 Azpilicueta 6
McCarthy 6 Ramires 7
Barry 6 Willian 6
Mirallas 6 Fabergas 7
Naismith 6 Hazard 7
McGeady 6 Matic 7
Lukaku 6 Costa 8
Substitution
Eto'o 6 Luis 6
Besic 3 Drogba N/A
Mikel 6
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About the author
Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.