• Everton 3-6 Chelsea

Chelsea on top in nine-goal thriller

All the pre-match talk was about Diego Costa's fitness - and the striker scored inside a minute © PA Photos

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Chelsea came out on top in a nine-goal thriller at Goodison Park that saw Jose Mourinho's side return to the top of the Premier League thanks to a 6-3 win over Everton.

Chelsea raced into a two goal lead when Diego Costa scored after just 35 seconds when he latched on to a delicate through-ball from Cesc Fabregas with Phil Jagielka trying to play the offside trap.

Match Analysis

• Man of the match: Once again, Cesc Fabregas will have Arsenal fans tearing their hair out as he continues to orchestrate the Chelsea midfield with elegance and style.
• Villain: The linesman on the nearside in the first half missed Branislav Ivanovic's offside and Tim Howard's blatant handball. But if he had seen the latter, the American would have been sent off and we probably would not have been treated to this scorcher of a match. Football at its finest.
• Key moment: Where on earth do you start with this game? I'll go with Ramires' goal which finally killed off Everton's resistance.
• Alex Perry

And it was 2-0 inside three minutes when Branislav Ivanovic suddenly found himself with only Tim Howard to beat. Replays showed the Chelsea defender was in an offside position.

Minutes later, Howard was lucky to stay on the field when he clearly handled outside the box.

Kevin Mirallas gave the hosts hope on half-time with a bullet header into the top corner, but an unfortunate Seamus Coleman own goal after 67 minutes restored Chelsea's advantage. Coleman deflected the ball past Howard as he tried to block Eden Hazard's cross.

Everton were back in it 90 seconds later when Steven Naismith fired under Thibaut Courtois, but they were within a goal of their visitors for just five minutes as Nemanja Matic found some space on the edge of the area and lashed the ball in off the post.

Chelsea old boy Samuel Eto'o came on for Everton and needed just six minutes to score against his old club to again bring Everton back within one, but Ramires bundled home soon after to complete the scoring - and the fifth goal in a 10 minute and 34 second spell.

A smart Mirallas volley after good build-up play between Eto'o and Baines forced Courtois to tip onto the post, before Costa completed the scoring in injury time.

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