Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 2-0 defeat to Chelsea

Everton losing to Chelsea was our first defeat of the season but it was more the manner of it that really hurt and really frustrated me. We didn’t seem up for it and when we went one-nil down, it felt like we gave up there was no fight.

Everyone has got to take accountability from the manager, the coaching staff and the players - they’ve got to be able to think for themselves during the whole game.

What I mean about players thinking for themselves, you’ve got your captain James Tarkowski who I thought played well, and he had a half decent game. But the stupid, daft bookings that he keeps on getting season after season when he knows the referee is whistle happy.

We were in control of the ball. We were in the second phase of getting the ball into the box and he does a daft shoulder barge right in front of the referee.

It’s blatant for everyone to see and he gets himself a yellow card, conceding possession over to Chelsea.

We’ve got a difficult run of tougher fixtures coming up and we knew it would be a big test against Chelsea. They are a fantastic side, but I thought they have frailties there if we could start fast and really get at them and bully them, because, besides Jordan Henderson, there is a lack of experience and I questioned whether they’d be up for the fight.

I think a big talking point before the game was that Merlin Rohl was playing on the right and we were thinking is he going to play there or is he going to mix it up a little bit. I just felt it was a little bit negative.

I wondered whether the manager was thinking that he had Rohl’s pace on the right and then Jack Grealish could slow it down and control the ball on the left, but unfortunately, basically from kick-off really, we knew it wasn’t working.

Chelsea really started pinging the ball about here and there for 15-20 minutes. We couldn’t really get near them and our midfield really struggled get any kind of foothold.

The changing point for me was the Harrison Armstrong challenge. It sort of lifted the whole crowd up and the momentum of the game and we started getting a little bit of joy the last 20 minutes of the first half.

We really started to put it onto Chelsea but the question mark has to be why do we keep starting so slow, so passive, especially at home? Is it a negative line-up that sets the tone and the players don’t want to be on the front foot, and we’re letting teams dictate when they come to Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Thierno Barry had his opportunity and you feel he’s got to come back when it came from the cross and maybe if that opportunity went in, the whole thing is different.

I listened to Danny Murphy on Match of the Day and I haven’t got a clue what game he watched. He praised referee Paul Tierney a lot and claimed that he let the game flow. He DID NOT let the game flow.

I think in the first minute he gave three fouls. He must have got a new whistle for his birthday! He couldn’t wait to blow the whistle for the Harrison Armstrong challenge. Yes it was strong, it was sharp, but to me it’s fair.

Whether I’m being a bit of a dinosaur, I just thought it was a fair challenge, but he blew the whistle before I think Harrison even got the ball. He blew very, very quickly and that set the tone because then you’re like: “Okay, here we go, the referee is not giving anything away here.”

That sort of played against us because he booked five players in the first half and he set a tone. It stopped Harrison getting into the game, stopped him from getting really involved and getting tight on Moises Caicedo, and he had to be very careful.

Harrison has been there before and has done fantastically on an early yellow card but he and James Garner are two similar type of players and we just couldn’t get anywhere near them in the middle of the pitch.

Last week I was moaning about us having pride in possession. You can hold your hands up if you’re getting pressured by teams and they’re chasing you down trying to get the ball back and forcing mistakes.

That’s fine, that happens, that’s competitive football. But we concede the ball and possession far too easily but by really daft decision making, it’s a lack of game management.

You’ve got Jordan Pickford kicking the ball to Jack Grealish two or three times when the right-back he’s up against [Josh Acheampong] is 6ft 3in. What are you trying to attempt to do from there? What do you expect Jack to do?

Then on the other side, we’ve got Merlin Rohl who is also 6ft 3in and he doesn’t kick it to him once. It’s basic common sense.

There has been a lack of pattern of play from us all season. I’m still trying to figure out how we’re trying to play.

It feels like we’re hit and hoping, like we’ve got a one dimensional way and just hope the ball will fall to us. I don’t see our midfielders demanding the ball from our defensive players.

If they get the ball, it’s backwards and sideways. I had the luxury of sitting on the couch through the week, just watching the Champions League games.

The Paris Saint-Germain first half against Manchester City was unbelievable to watch, and it was two-touch, pass, control, pass, forward, wingers were wide, going forwards into space. The referee was letting the game go as tackles were going in.

You come to the Premier League and watch Everton, it’s the total opposite. The referee didn’t let the game flow at all.

Even the Chelsea players were getting frustrated with the referee but Jordan Henderson was trying to sort of manage the game himself the way he does, the way he gets around the referee, even though he wasn’t the captain. That didn’t get pulled up.

While it was still goalless, we had the Morgan Rogers and James Garner challenge. It’s a 50/50 you know but at the end of the day, Garner comes off worse.

The referee set a precedent, if you’re giving Harrison Armstrong a yellow card for that challenge, you probably should give both of them yellow card for the 50/50 challenge but didn’t.

Rogers ended up hitting Garner on the knee very high up. I’m not sure how that gets looked at without coming to the conclusion that it’s a second yellow card for the Chelsea player.

Mike Dean, who sits in the studio and doesn’t really give Everton much praise or anything, even he said it was a straight red. That’s one of the key players off the football pitch if the referee is consistent in how he started the game.

David Moyes said he started Merlin Rohl because he thought Chelsea’s left-back Pep Chavarria [who didn’t play] could be a issue. I’m not bothered about Chelsea’s left-back, I’m bothered about Cole Palmer and the front three.

Their first goal came from what he was trying to protect in the first place. He thought if he played Tyrique George or Tyler Dibling on the right, he wouldn’t have those defensive duties, but Rohl would but he failed to go to the runner and stop the cross, letting him in too easily.

Instead, we should have been looking at where Chelsea were struggling. They couldn’t keep clean sheets or stop the ball from going into the net from set-pieces.

Our set-pieces at the weekend were horrendous. The delivery was so poor, we didn’t put them under threat.

That’s the third time this season, Manchester United, Hull City and now Chelsea, that we’ve conceded almost straight away from kick-off in the second half. Again, slow starts have come to hurt us.

At least in the other two, we got ourselves back into the game but we didn’t react this time around. Chelsea just went into second gear, slowed the tempo and controlled the game.

We needed a change, we needed something to happen and you’re head scratching, thinking why is Rohl still and Ainsley Maitland-Niles is not really playing well. Yet, we’ve got three wingers on the subs bench there who are champing at the bit.

They’re not getting the minutes I think the deserve. We’ve got to be a bit careful because if they’re sitting on the sideline and they’ve gone from zero minutes to getting a full effort in the next couple of weeks or so, it’s going to be even more difficult for them as they’re play catch up as it is.

I couldn't agree with what Moyes said this time around

The second goal happened because the way a player comes on unfit.

I agreed with David Moyes’ comments after the Hull game that he wasn’t happy with aspects of the performance but I couldn’t agree with anything he said after the Chelsea match.

I think he really contradicted himself when he got asked about Christian Norgaard’s fitness levels and he said I think you can see that he’s way off it. So, why bring him on?

It was his debut and you don’t want to be harsh on him but he’s an experience player but he looked way off the pace, gave away the free-kick and got a yellow card that led to Chelsea’s second goal which killed the game for us.

You’ve got Hayden Hackney there. He demands the ball off the back four and drives forwards.

We haven’t got a pattern of play, but Hackney does try.

When he’s been on the pitch and wearing that blue shirt, he’s made a difference in the Manchester United game. He came on, he dictates and we got the great equaliser – that was all down to him demanding the ball and trying to make things happen.

I would like to see something change from on David Moyes. You’re chasing the game one nil, you put a sitting midfielder on and he’s cost us the game and the opportunity to get back into it.

I’d rather get beat having a go, than just sitting back and being passive and a bit slow in our play.

What is our style of play? When we get the ball, what do we try and work on?

Because all I see is just long balls up to Barry and long balls up to Grealish. There’s no passage of play and that’s where I want our midfielders to start dictating because Chelsea were very compact in the middle.

Chelsea’s keeper Emiliano Martinez went off after a nasty clash. Their reserve goalkeeper [Mike Penders] came on for his Premier League debut and from very early on, he was coming out for crosses.

Yet we didn’t test him by putting in shots on target or test him with shots from distance or by whipping low crosses in. We just put in another loopy, floated cross again.

Three times we did that, giving him the confidence out come out and catch the ball or punch it. This is the second time this year these players have faced this scenario as we played in the derby last year and Liverpool’s third choice keeper came on and didn’t have a shot to save.

You’re facing a keeper who has been sat on the bench for months. He’s showing he’s keen so he might be all over the place – test him and pop the question.