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Chelsea were held to a 0-0 draw by Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon.
It was a pageant that emphasized the reality that beauty is not the goal of competitive sports. Sean Dyche’s hosts battled, bumped and bruised their visitors, then battled their way to another goalless stalemate. Draw with Arsenal last weekend.
Enzo Maresca’s side squandered the few chances they had to go above Liverpool at the Premier League summit.
How the game unfolded
EvertonAs is his signature style under Dyche, regardless of the setting or the opponent, ceding the initiative. A compact set of blue shirts managed to stun the visitors for 25 minutes. However, a crunching tackle from Moises Caicedo broke Everton’s rearguard, setting off a chain reaction of numerical superiority that ended with Cole Palmer squaring for Nicholas Jackson.
ChelseaThe in-form forward dragged a close-range try straight into the middle of the Jordan Pickford. Malo Gusto was on the way with his header on the rebound.
Just after the half-hour mark, Jackson was presented with another exciting opportunity. Leaning to meet a corner that swung all the way to the back of Everton’s box, the Senegal international somehow conspired to head his effort against the post from three yards out.
Iliman Ndia was Everton’s biggest threat, always carrying the ball. The wriggling forward got away from Axel Desassi before picking out Jack Harrison at the back post. Afforded the freedom of Goodison, Harrison was impressed by Robert Sánchez for his close-range efforts.
Chelsea lost their minds in the cramped dressing room during the interval. Levi Colville lost a wrestling match with Beto in the center circle, watching from the turf as Everton went one further. The combination of Tosin Adarabioyo and Sanchez managed to clear Jasper Lindström’s low cross as Ndiaye came in to pounce into the box, desperately preserving Chelsea’s clean sheet.
In the end, neither backline will be breached.
Check out the player ratings from Everton vs Chelsea here.
“It’s a windy day, it’s quite cold,” Enzo Maresca pointed out pre-game. “That’s nice, that’s England.”
The swirling wind refused to let any ball stay up to set piece. Pickford collected an errant cone that was blown onto the pitch in the first half, while the players were forced to fend off pieces of rubbish strewn across the pitch during the second 45 minutes.
Some in the audience argued that the situation was worse than it had been made out to be Postponement of this month’s Merseyside derby.
Adverse weather conditions hampered both sides. While Chelsea struggled to contain the cauldron of rain, Everton’s volley off forward punt was at the mercy of Gayle as he pounded Goodison Park.
As Dyche pointed out after the game: “We’ve been through the storm.”
Chelsea went into the weekend as the Premier League’s most prolific outfit. However, for the first time since the opening game of the campaign, the Blues were kept blank by their opponents. Everton restricted the west London outfit to just 0.77xG – Chelsea’s lowest total all season.
On the rare occasion when the visitors managed to fight their way through the hosts, Jordan Pickford stood tall. Boasting a personality to match the wild elements on display – this is a player with “Get The Rave On” stitched into his boots – Everton’s enigmatic number one flourished amid the mayhem, with only Law about reining in his puppy-like enthusiasm. right side.
Like Pickford, Robert Sanchez has come under criticism throughout his career. The divisive Spain international is often credited as the reason Chelsea’s title challenge is deeply flawed, but the goalkeeper almost single-handedly ensured the Blues emerged from Sunday’s contest with a share of spoils.
Along with interim CEO Colin Chong, new executive chairman Mark Watts attends a Goodison match day for the first time. 👋 pic.twitter.com/i02mEwy1iE
— Everton (@Everton) December 22, 2024
on three days With belated confirmation that the Friedkin Group had completed their takeover of Everton, new executive chairman Mark Watts was watching from the stands.
Dyche hoped the new ownership would bring “a positive mood to the team”, but it will take more than cheeky press releases and replica scarves to change the lingering sense of unease hanging over Everton these days.
Toffee is the spoon team in the pork world; Clearly lacking any cutting edge. While they offered more threats after the break, it was hardly unfair for the game to end goalless. As Watts and his boss would soon discover, this is nothing new for the Toffees. Four of Everton’s last six matches have ended 0-0.
