A superb half-volley from Ji So-Yun opened the scoring early in the first half before England doubled our advantage with less than 20 minutes to go.The England international then made it three when she headed in from close range and the striker was involved yet again when she laid the ball off to Pernille Harder who fired a sublime effort into the top corner.Heading into the fixture, our opponents were sitting in second place and had already beaten Emma Hayes’ side this campaign having clinched a 2-1 victory in the 2019/20 FA Cup quarter-final back in September.England praised the ability of the squad to take that disappointment and ensure the Blues this time took our chances against the Toffees to earn a victory that moved Chelsea above the Merseysiders in the current league standings.

‘Everton came out fighting as we knew they would and just as they did went we went to their place when they managed to turn us over,’ she said.‘They have shown that they are not here to make up the numbers this season – they went on to make the FA Cup final and so today was a big statement from us.‘Today we were much more resilient in our performance. We knew they weren’t going to make it easy for us and I think with the quality that we have, we persevered and we managed to get that early goal which helped to settle the nerves.‘We knew we could keep pushing on in the second half and towards the last 25 minutes we managed to sneak a few more goals in.‘Everton had some good chances and we were quite lucky on a few occasions but ultimately we kept a clean sheet which is one of the most important things in helping us get the three points.’

It was a memorable afternoon for the Chelsea forward with two goals and two assists and a performance which merited the Barclay’s Women’s Super League player of the match accolade. The 26-year-old insists she will keep working hard to help the team achieve success this season.‘I’m delighted to get the start today and to get on the scoresheet too.‘The first goal was good build-up play from the girls and the ball thankfully dropped nicely into my path from Melly’s Melanie Leupolz touch and I hit it first time.‘For my second I thought I’d got an assist for Erin [Cuthbert] more than anything but I was quickest to react and thankfully again it went in.‘Emma [Hayes] really emphasised on us taking shots. I don’t think we’ve been taking enough this season so when you get in and around those areas we have to have a go, take our chances and thankfully that came off.‘The girls put in a classy performance. In this team there is so much talent, we are a great bunch of girls, we believe in each other and it’s good to see that when we are getting opportunities, we are taking them.’