Chelsea come unstuck against Toffees

Chelsea 0 : 0 Everton

Everton ended a run of four successive defeats at Stamford Bridge today after Jordan Pickford kept a commendable clean sheet in West London.

Chelsea have more goals in the last 15 minutes than any other side in the EPL  but today that specialty was unable to save them dropping two vital points at the top of the table. Against a capable but unspectacular Everton side, the Blues displayed why many do not think their title challenge is sustainable in the long run.

They struggled to break down mid table Everton, even with 69% possession, whereas Manchester City and Liverpool seem to find a way in these circumstances against tough opposition. Everton defended superbly and their workrate and organisation was a credit to their coach Marco Silva and his staff.

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri made seven changes from the side who started against BATE in Belarus in midweek as he sought successfully to become the first manager to go unbeaten in his first 12 matches in the EPL and thus overtake Nottingham Forest’s Frank Clark, whose record had lasted 24 years.

Everton started the fresher and put some initial pressure on Chelsea. Bernard struck a ferocious drive a yard wide in the 12th minute. For their part, Chelsea started somewhat sluggishly as they did in their last home league game against Crystal Palace.

Yerry Mina was awarded a harsh yellow for a foul on Eden Hazard, with the free kick maybe too straight for anything but a direct shot. Chelsea formed a wall in front of the wall but Marcus Alonso curled the ball low and wide, having skillfully beaten both walls.

Half an hour passed and neither goalkeeper had dirty gloves. Jorginho was rightly booked for a lunge on Gylfi Sigurdsson. On another day, it may have been a red and the Icelander needed hefty treatment on his right ankle. He returned to the match and sportingly Jorginho sought him out to apologise for the challenge. Kante joined him in the book following a nasty challenge on Richarlison sent the Evertonian flying.

Alonso provided the best effort of the half seven minutes before the break but Pickford was equal to it. Antonio Rudiger went flying from a Bernard headbutt and both were booked. Bernard is 5’5″ and Rudiger is 6’3″ which makes Rudiger’s theatrical fall to the ground even more despicable. The whole thing happened behind the referee Kevin Friend’s back but on balance, the allocation of cards was probably correct although had he seen it himself, Bernard may have been sent off.

The home side started the second half with much more gusto and Pickford had to make a save from Alvaro Morata within twelve seconds. The Toffees’ Theo Walcott’s first touch was awful when Sigurdsson provided a great chance to hone in on goal.

Kepa needed to be alert on a long range effort from the Icelander, his side’s first effort on target just inside the hour. The knocks on the door became louder at both ends without anybody’s knuckles losing their epidermis in the process.

Bernard tripped over his own feet, Pickford saved from a long range Hazard effort and then a deflected one, Chelsea had some corners in quick succession and some long range efforts well blocked, but all of this went punctuated by a goal.

In the 64th minute, both coaches sensibly replaced two men already on first half yellow cards, whose cards might even have been red. Cesc Fabregas replaced Jorginho for Chelsea while Everton introduced the exciting youngster Ademola Lookman who replaced the tiring Bernard. Pedro also replace Willian shortly afterwards.

Morata had the ball in the net but he was offside when César Azpilicueta played him in. Jordan Pickford received the game’s sixth yellow card for time wasting. Phil Jagielka made his first appearance since opening day when Sigurdsson finally limped off. Ross Barkley came on to face his former club with 11 minutes gone replacing Mateo Kovacic.

Despite some decent half chances at either end, Everton held on fairly comfortably, doing their near neighbours a favour in the process.

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