Carlo Ancelotti is promising Everton will summon all their “fighting spirit” to hit back from a performance against Chelsea that was “not good enough… and wrong from the beginning”.

Everton went to Stamford Bridge on Sunday aiming to close the gap to fourth-placed Chelsea to five points after claiming 18 points from Ancelotti’s opening 10 games in charge.

But the Blues were behind the eight ball from the 14th minute when Mason Mount opened the scoring for Chelsea.

Pedro doubled the home team’s advantage soon after and Chelsea scored twice in quick succession following the interval to wrap up victory.

Everton are six points behind Wolverhampton Wanderers in fifth with nine games remaining.

Ancelotti’s side return to Goodison Park for next Monday’s Merseyside derby seeking to extend an unbeaten home run which reached a seventh game with last week’s home draw against Manchester United.

“This club wants to be competitive, we are still there [to fight for Europe] and we still need to fight for this,” said Ancelotti.

“Today we weren't at the same level as Chelsea but one week ago we were on the same level as Manchester United.

"This performance from the whole team was not good enough.

“It was the worst day and worst performance since I arrived.

“We were not good enough defensively and made a lot of mistakes offensively.

“But we have to forget and not lose our confidence.

“It will be difficult but we can learn and prepare well for the next game

“We can come back and, as we usually do, show good fighting spirit."

Chelsea nosed ahead when Mount collected a return pass from Pedro and spun to fire low beyond Jordan Pickford.

Everton goalkeeper Pickford limited the damage with a succession of smart stops and had already sharply denied Mount before the opener.

He was powerless, however, when Pedro streaked through to slide home on 21 minutes following a ball from Ross Barkley which unzipped Everton's rearguard.

Ancelotti’s side had a sight of goal when Richarlison swarmed all over Kurt Zouma to stride forwards and feed Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Striker Calvert-Lewin had cleverly pulled into space but sent his effort beyond the far post.

And Chelsea put the game to bed soon after half-time.

Willian crisply drove home from 25 yards and the Brazilian turned provider when he crossed from the left for Olivier Giroud to score with a controlled finish on the half volley.

Ancelotti replaced Bernard with Theo Walcott at the interval and introduced Moise Kean and Anthony Gordon during the second 45 minutes.

But Everton were unable to gain any sort of foothold in the contest and Pickford made further good stops from Pedro and Cesar Azpilicueta.

“Jordan did really well but we were not good enough defensively and gave them too many opportunities to have chances,” added Ancelotti.

“There was no problem with Bernard, I wanted to change the system to try to put more energy on the pitch.

“We have to take our responsibility, myself and the players did not do well enough.

“But, honestly, it is the first game since I arrived the team did not show a good spirit.

“This defeat can help us be more motivated next Monday [against Liverpool].”

Ancelotti continued: “To have problems is normal in football.

“And It is normal to learn from mistakes,

"It is the first time [since Ancelotti was appointed in December] that from the beginning until the end of a game we were not good… today was wrong from the beginning.

“We lost other games [2-1 at Manchester City and when Arsenal beat Everton 3-2 last month] but in some parts of those games were really good.

“Today we were not able to come back.

“We have to learn from the mistakes and focus on the next game."