Chelsea were held to a lukewarm 0-0 draw by Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon.
This was a pageant that underscored the reality that beauty is not the goal of competitive sport. Sean Dyche’s hosts battled, hit and hurt their visitors, fighting their way to a second goalless stalemate after last weekend’s draw with Arsenal.
Enzo Maresca’s side squandered the few chances they had and let slip the chance to go above Liverpool, albeit briefly, at the top of the Premier League.
How the game developed
evertonas is their signature style regardless of the stage or the opponent under Dyche, they ceded the initiative. The compact mass of blue shirts managed to slow down the visitors for 25 minutes. However, a crisp tackle from Moises Caicedo tore through the Everton rearguard, sparking a chain reaction of numerical superiority that ended with Cole Palmer slotting home for Nicolas Jackson.
ChelseaThe in-form forward curled a short-range effort straight into the belly of Jordan Pickford. Malo Gusto was capricious with his head on the bounce.
Jackson presented himself with another glaring opportunity shortly after the half-hour mark. Crouching down to meet a corner that had been swung in at the back of the Everton box, the Senegal international somehow conspired to steer his effort against the post from three yards.
Iliman Ndiaye brought Everton’s biggest threat, invariably carrying the ball. The striker got away from Axel Disasi before picking out Jack Harrison at the back post. Given the freedom of Goodison, Harrison had his close-range effort smothered by an overpowered Robert Sanchez.
Chelsea left their minds in the cramped dressing room at half-time. Levi Colwill lost a tussle with Beto in the center circle, watching from the turf as Everton mounted another surge forward. A combination of Tosin Adarabioyo and Sanchez almost managed to clear Jesper Lindstrom’s low cross as Ndiaye broke into the box, desperately preserving the Chelsea goal.
In the end, no bottom line would be broken.
Check out Everton vs Chelsea player ratings here.
“It’s a windy day, it’s quite cold,” Enzo Maresca shrewdly pointed out before the game. “It’s beautiful, it’s England.”
The swirling wind refused to let any ball sit still for a set ball. Pickford picked up a stray cone that had been thrown onto the pitch in the first half, while the players were forced to dodge pieces of rubbish strewn across the pitch for the second 45 minutes.
Some spectators argued that the conditions were worse than they called for postponement of this month’s Merseyside derby.
Adverse weather conditions hampered both sides. While Chelsea struggled to cope with the cauldron of precipitation, Everton’s volley of forward points were at the mercy of the gale that hit Goodison Park.
As Dyche noted after the game: “We’ve been through a storm.”
Chelsea went into the weekend as the most prolific team in the Premier League. However, for the first time since the opening game of the campaign, the Blues were kept clean by their opponents. Everton limited the west London outfit to just 0.77xG, Chelsea’s lowest figure all season.
On the rare occasion the visitors managed to break through the hosts, Jordan Pickford stood tall. With a personality to match the wild elements on display – after all, this is a player with ‘Get the Rave On’ sewn into his boots – Everton’s enigmatic number one thrived amidst the chaos, at point of controlling his puppy-like exuberance to remain. the right side of the law.
Like Pickford, Robert Sanchez has been the subject of criticism throughout his career. The divisive Spain international is often seen as a reason Chelsea’s title challenge is deeply flawed, but the goalkeeper almost single-handedly ensured the Blues came away from Sunday’s competition with a share of the spoils.
New chief executive Marc Watts is taking part in a Goodison day for the first time, along with interim chief executive Colin Chong. 👋 pic.twitter.com/i02mEwy1iE
— Everton (@Everton) December 22, 2024
Three days later since the belated confirmation that the Friedkin Group had completed its takeover of Everton, new chief executive Marc 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 a cheery press release and replica scarf to change the perpetual sense of malaise hanging over Everton these days .
The Toffees are a team of spoons in a world of pork chops; clearly lacking any cut. Although they offered more threats after the break, it was no injustice that the game ended goalless. As Watts and his bosses will soon discover, this is nothing new for the Toffees. Four of Everton’s last six games have ended 0-0.
