Pedro Neto Scores Twice as Chelsea Beat Everton 2-0 and End Their Unbeaten Start

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND · SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026

Chelsea waited 45 minutes to get going at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, and then needed less than one to change the match. Pedro Neto scored 44 seconds after half-time and again in the 90th minute to give Chelsea a 2-0 win over Everton, ending the hosts' unbeaten start to the Premier League season. But the result is not the only thing Chelsea took home from Merseyside. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was carried off on a stretcher after a head-on-head collision in the second half and taken to hospital, and the worry over the Argentina international hangs over a victory that was otherwise close to perfect for Xabi Alonso's side.

The bare facts are agreed everywhere the match was recorded. Reuters and the Associated Press both close the book at 2-0, scoreless at half-time, with Neto scoring in the 46th and 90th minutes, and Sportradar's match record for this Matchday 7 fixture shows the same split: nothing in the first period, two Chelsea goals in the second. Everton's first defeat of the season is in there too, and so is the detail that gives the win its shine: this was Chelsea's first Premier League clean sheet since January.

A first half of friction, not chances

Reuters called the first half goalless but feisty, and the card count backs that up: five yellow cards before the break, several heated exchanges, and very little football played in either penalty area. Everton began the day unbeaten — two wins and four draws from their first six matches, a start built on being hard to beat at their new home — and for 45 minutes they looked exactly that. Their best opening came in the 27th minute, when Jack Grealish crossed for Thierno Barry, whose close-range header went straight at Martinez. Chelsea's best came four minutes before half-time, when Moises Caicedo struck a powerful volley that hit the woodwork with Jordan Pickford beaten. It was a half that promised a fight more than a finish, and Everton's crowd, sensing their unbeaten record might survive another week, were happy enough with that.

Forty-four seconds

Then the second half started, and the match tilted for good. Morgan Rogers made a strong run down the left and found Jorrel Hato with a backheel pass; Hato drove into the penalty area and delivered a low cross, and Neto, unmarked, controlled the ball and fired past Pickford. Reuters timed the breakthrough at 43 seconds after the restart, the Associated Press at 44 — either way, Everton's defensive shape, so solid for an entire half, was undone before most of the stadium had sat back down. It is the kind of goal that changes a game plan on both benches. Everton, built to protect a point and steal one, now had to chase. Chelsea, who had struggled to create clear chances all afternoon, suddenly had space to play in, and Cole Palmer and Rogers both went close to a second as the game opened up.

The stoppage nobody wanted

The match's defining image, though, is not either goal. In the 66th minute Martinez came to claim a free kick and collided head-on with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite. Both players needed medical attention. Branthwaite passed a concussion test and played on; Martinez did not move so easily. The Associated Press reported that he received around 10 minutes of treatment on the field before being carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital, moving his arms as he left, and that TNT Sports reported he was heading for tests. Alonso said afterwards, in an update reported by TeamTalk, that the news was limited: “As far as I know, he left the stadium conscious; he's in the hospital doing precautionary tests. Let's see. This is all I know so far,” Alonso said. On came Mike Penders, 21 years old, for a Premier League debut in about the coldest circumstances a young goalkeeper can be handed: away from home, a one-goal lead, a crowd smelling a comeback, and 11 minutes of added time still to come because of the stoppage. He saw it out without a blemish.

Neto closes the door

Everton pushed, but pushing was mostly what they had. The equalizer never truly threatened to arrive, and in the 90th minute Chelsea ended the argument. A free kick struck the Everton wall, the loose ball dropped inside the box, and Neto — calm while everyone else was swinging — placed his shot into the bottom corner to complete his double. Two finishes, one at the very start of the half and one at the very end of the match, bookending a second half that belonged to Chelsea in every way except the one that will dominate their week: the health of their goalkeeper.

What it leaves behind

For Everton, the unbeaten start is over, ended not with a collapse but with two moments of quality and one long, strange afternoon. David Moyes' side had not lost in seven rounds; they remain a difficult, well-organized team, but Saturday showed the ceiling on a side that creates this little — Barry's header was their one clear sight of goal, and a team that scores eight times in seven matches will lose nights like this one whenever the defending slips for a minute.

For Chelsea, the clean sheet may matter as much as the points. The Associated Press noted this was their first in the league in nine months, snapping a run of 22 league matches without one. For a side that sat 10th after a winless September and spent the autumn being called talented but soft, a 2-0 away win built on patience and defensive discipline is a different kind of statement. Owen Hargreaves said on TNT Sports, in comments reported by TeamTalk: “I thought Morgan Rogers was terrific, Cole Palmer was terrific, Caicedo had a big impact, but the big moments have belonged to that man there, Pedro Neto — definitely an unsung hero in this Chelsea team.” Chelsea's next league assignment, per the club's own schedule, is Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on October 24. Whether Martinez is available for it is, tonight, the only question at Chelsea that really matters.