Antonio Rudiger scored his first Chelsea goal as the Blues saw off Everton to book their place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
The former Roma defender back-pedalled to nod home Charly Musonda’s cross in the 26th minute – his first goal at club level for almost 18 months.
Willian appeared to have sealed the home side’s success with a second in injury time – only for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to halve the deficit immediately.
Chelsea were untroubled defensively but looked more comfortable following Rudiger’s breakthrough and Davide Zappacosta could have extended their advantage before half-time, but blazed into the side netting.
Everton fought back at the start of the second half and it needed a trio of stops from Willy Caballero to preserve the lead.
The Blues goalkeeper denied Wayne Rooney and Phil Jagielka in quick succession, before diving to his left to push away a low drive from Kevin Mirallas.
Toffees substitute Ademola Lookman cut inside and clipped the crossbar with Caballero beaten – but Willian seemed to have made the tie safe, exchanging passes with substitute Cesc Fabregas and firing into the far corner.
Yet Chelsea, who gave a full debut to Ethan Ampadu and a debut to summer signing Danny Drinkwater, still had to survive a late scare as Calvert-Lewin capitalised on shaky defending to stab home from close range less than a minute later.
Chelsea (3-4-3:) Caballero; Rudiger, Christensen, Cahill; Zappacosta, Drinkwater (Fabregas 62), Ampadu, Kenedy; Willian, Musonda (Pedro 70), Batshuayi (Morata 85).
Subs not used: Clarke-Salter, Scott, Eduardo, Sterling.
This post was last modified on 28/10/2017