Everton’s wait for another Premier League win at Stamford Bridge is their longest such drought in the competition but just how does their record away to Chelsea stack up?
When Sean Dyche’s men step out against Graham Potter’s side on Saturday afternoon, an incredible 10,340 days will have passed since Everton last secured three points in this corner of west London courtesy of Paul Rideout’s 39th minute header past Dmitri Kharine on November 26, 1994.
It was new manager Joe Royle’s first away game in charge of the Blues it’s a sequence that goes back even longer than the club’s record-breaking silverware drought which stretches to when another headed goal from Rideout in the capital secured the FA Cup at Wembley the following May when they defeated Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 1-0.
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The world was obviously very different more than 28 years ago when Everton picked up their most-recent three points at Chelsea. Baby D’s Let Me Be Your Fantasy was number one in the UK charts (it would eventually be knocked off top spot some three weeks later by East 17’s Christmas smash Stay Another Day); John Major was Prime Minister; Charles and Diana were still married. The first National Lottery draw had taken place the weekend before the Blues’ triumph at Stamford Bridge while that month the Daily Telegraph became the first national newspaper in Britain to launch an online edition although only 600,000 people – little more than 1% of the population – had access to the internet in their homes at this point.
In football terms, Chelsea’s neighbours Fulham were languishing in the Football League’s basement division, finishing five places below Chesterfield who were promoted through the play-offs with a certain 23-year-old centre-back called Dyche among their ranks while other current Premier League clubs Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion were all in the third tier. Five of the Everton side that started the 1-0 win over Brentford last weekend - Ben Godfrey, Amadou Onana, Alex Iwobi, Dwight McNeil and Demarai Gray - had not yet been born.
Just who has picked up three points in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge since? Although Chelsea went over four seasons unbeaten at home between 2004-2008 under Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant, and then again the 2014/15 season during the Portuguese manager’s second stint in charge, the club has still suffered some 69 home defeats in the competition.
From 1994/95 onwards, Arsenal have won away against Chelsea nine times in the Premier League; Liverpool eight times; Manchester United and Manchester City six times apiece; Southampton and West Ham United five times each; Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers four and even Sunderland and Bournemouth – the latter in just six visits – on three occasions. On the flip side, some three current Premier League clubs have still never won at Stamford Bridge in the competition: Chelsea’s neighbours Fulham (P16 D6 L10); Wolverhampton Wanderers (P9 D3 L6) and Brighton & Hove Albion (P5 D2 L3).
While Chelsea have finished above Everton in all but one of the subsequent seasons (in 1995/96, Everton came sixth and Chelsea were 11th), as two ever-presents in the Premier League, the Blues' lack of victories in the head-to-head seems to represent something of a mental block, especially when you look at the size and resources of some of the other clubs to have subsequently triumphed at Stamford Bridge. In terms of total games, Everton’s official statistician Gavin Buckland points out it is the joint longest winless run by one Premier League club away to another, equalling Newcastle United’s record against Liverpool at Anfield since 1995.
Although it would be a massive boost to Everton’s survival chances if they could finally end the hoodoo this weekend – the club did of course triumph at the ground in an FA Cup penalty shootout in 2011 – their winless Premier League run away to Chelsea does include no fewer than a dozen draws. Frank Lampard never got the chance to go back there as Blues boss against the club where he spent the bulk of his playing career but Rafael Benitez secured a 1-1 draw in last season’s corresponding fixture with a patched-up side, so the hope is that the current crop might be able to take at least a share of the spoils to secure what could be a precious point.
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