Everton finished seventh on the Premier League table courtesy of a 1-0 victory at home over second-placed Chelsea today.
The Toffees were close to an early goal when Phil Jagielka's header hit the woodwork and they continued on in an attacking vein as they searched for the opener.
Chelsea were looking very flat in what could be their final game under Carlo Ancelotti but Nicolas Anelka tried to kickstart things at the end of the first half but was denied twice by Tim Howard who was holding his own in goals for the home side.
Just seven minutes in the second term, Everton were reduced to ten men when Seamus Coleman was shown his second yellow of the match for his challenge on John Obi Mikel.
As the game went on, Chelsea still looked sluggish and it proved costly when Jermaine Beckford notched up his milestone 10th goal of the season (in all competitions) with a brilliant run past four defenders which ended with a sweet chip over Petr Cech to provide one of the goals of the season.
Despite being a man down, Everton were able to hold out a fast-finishing Chelsea outfit who will have to deal with a second loss in three games which had them finish nine points behind champions Manchester United.
Everton: 1 (Jermaine Beckford 75') Chelsea: 0
Venue: Goodison Park, LiverpoolCrowd: 38,712 Referee:Peter Walton Yellow cards:EVE - John Heitinga 26', Seamus Coleman 47'/53', Leighton Baines 50'
CHE - Alex 51', Fernando Torres 90' Red card:EVE - Seamus Coleman 53'
Starting Line-Ups
Everton Tim Howard (gk) - Tony Hibbert, Sylvain Distin, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines - Leon Osman, Jack Rodwell, John Heitinga, Mikel Arteta (Cahill 90'), Seamus Coleman - Jermaine Beckford (Anichebe 80')
Subs - Jan Mucha (gk), Victor Anichebe (80'), Tim Cahill (90'), Jose Baxter, Magaye Gueye, Shane Duffy, Adam Forshaw
Chelsea Petr Cech (gk) - Branislav Ivanovic, Alex (Ferreira 70'), John Terry, Ashley Cole - John Obi Mikel (Kalou 61'), Frank Lampard, Michael Essien (McEachran 78') - Florent Malouda, Fernando Torres, Nicolas Anelka
Subs - Ross Turnbull (gk), Salomon Kalou (61'), Paulo Ferreira (70'), Josh McEachran (78'), Yuri Zhirkov, Ryan Bertrand, David Luiz
