It was a tough away match for Chelsea at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool, England. Xabi Alonso commended his players' professionalism and solid display to secure the win against Everton.

Pedro Neto fired the Blues ahead early in the second half and got a second in the 90th minute of the game against the Toffees.

Despite Emiliano Martínez being forced off and replaced by Mike Penders in the 75th minute, the visitors were able to secure their first clean sheet since January 2026.

Alonso relishes his team's first clean sheet, but states that they need to work on getting many more in the games to come.

Emi Martínez's incident

Alonso, when asked about his team getting their first clean sheet and Martínez's injury, remarked:

"Well, first about Emi, what we know is that he left the stadium conscious and right now he's in the hospital doing precautionary tests, so we need to wait, and, for sure, hopefully it won't be too bad, but we need to wait at the moment. And yeah, really pleased with the performance, with the win, with the clean sheet, many positives to build from today.

We knew that it was going to be a hard challenge to win in this stadium, but we did many things to deserve the win. I think that we got many things right, going through very clean, very professional, very solid, and it's good to have this feeling to win this way."

Mike Penders' contribution

He also commented on Penders' contribution towards achieving the clean sheet: