Everton clinched an important 1-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday thanks to Gylfi Sigurdsson’s penalty.
The Toffees beat Frank Lampard’s side at Goodison Park for the second straight season.
Duncan Ferguson was caretaker manager for last season’s 3-1 win and Jordan Pickford told the club website that Carlo Ancelotti wanted Everton to channel that spirit on Saturday.
“The gaffer talked about the last time we played Chelsea here when Duncan was in charge – he wanted to see that spirit and fight,” said Pickford.
“The main thing was keeping a clean sheet. That was massive for us. I spoke last week [after Everton’s 1-1 draw at Burnley] about having that clean sheet mentality, with 11 men working to achieve that.
“That showed against Chelsea, everyone was grafting hard to try to get that clean sheet. Making those saves always feels good. I train hard all week to be ready for the game on Saturday and be ready for those moments.”
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Everton haven’t been good enough defensively this season, keeping just the one clean sheet before Saturday.
That was on the opening day of the season at Tottenham, but they’d been too leaky in between.
Chelsea have been clinical in attack in recent weeks, but were reduced to few chances by a resilient Everton display.
For Pickford, some impressive saves and a clean sheet are exactly what he needs. He needs to turn that into a consistent run of form now and so do Everton.