James Tarkowski admits Everton’s hammering against Chelsea was ‘the most embarrassed’ he has ever been in his career… as Sean Dyche confesses his side were ‘all over the place’

Everton defender James Tarkowski said his side’s 6-0 loss to Chelsea was ‘the most embarrassed’ he has felt in his career.

The Toffees were played off the park as they suffered a major blow in their latest bid to survive relegation from the Premier League, with Chelsea 4-0 up at half time on their way to the rout.

Cole Palmer netted four goals to draw level with Erling Haaland in the race to win the Golden Boot, but it was a night to forget for Sean Dyche and his Everton side.

Tarkowski was the man sent out for media duty after the game, fronting up to the Sky Sports cameras to discuss the defeat before Dyche himself backed up Tarkowski in apologising to fans.

The former England defender donned a glum look as he tried to explain the result, and admitted that he and the rest of his team-mates were to take the blame for the result.

Tarkowski’s side suffered a 6-0 defeat to Chelsea on Monday night as their relegation worries continued

The Toffees were 4-0 down at half time and Tarkowski said that the players were to blame

‘[It will] be a long debrief that,’ Tarkowski said. ‘Underperformed, the most embarrassed I have felt as an individual.

‘It shows where we are at today. We can only apologise to the fans who supported us. It is on the players, it is not on the manager and the staff. No excuses on our behalf, we need to brush ourselves down as we have a big few weeks coming up.

‘We conceded six goals and you should feel embarrassed. Nothing to do with technical aspects, people getting beat and run off and it is hard to summarise it. I have had dark times here but the fans stick by us in the next game so hopefully they’ll be there for us again.’

The result was the worst of Sean Dyche’s career from a scoreline point of view, with the manager previously expressing his frustration at his side’s failures at the top end of the field.

While that continued – Beto missed a golden opportunity at 0-0 that accumulated an xG of 0.94 – there were issues at the other end too, with his side ripped apart and, at times, causing their own downfalls.

Manager Sean Dyche said the game signalled an ‘ugly night’ as he criticised his players

He said his team were ‘miles off it’ and pointed to the importance of upcoming games

‘Ugly night,’ he said after the game. ‘Collectively a down night without a shadow of a doubt. Perfect storm in the way that we seemed to get punished. The start of the game is spot on, a strange feeling around Chelsea we thought we could make them comfortable, we did.

‘The goals, miles off. People learning their trade, you have to get tackles in, read the game. Mildly better in the second half.

‘You have got to do the basics which we didn’t do. Chelsea are a good bunch of players and they play around you. The recovery is all over the place. Nothing to do with anyone else, we were miles off it.

‘That can’t happen again. We have six big games coming.’