Match report: Everton 0-0 Chelsea
Andy Hunter was the man tasked with chiselling out several hundred words to describe that stalemate at Goodison Park. Here’s how he saw it.
Chelsea stay third: Following a very, very frustrating afternoon at Goodison Park, Chelsea close the gap on Manchester City to 13 points, with City ready to take on Bournemouth in just over half an hour. With Manchester United not playing Leicester until later tonight, City could have a lead of 14 points before that game kicks off. Everton stay ninth, with 26 points, behind Leicester on goal difference.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 18 | 44 | 52 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 18 | 27 | 41 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 19 | 18 | 39 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 19 | 18 | 35 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 19 | 11 | 34 |
Full-time: Everton 0-0 Chelsea
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeep! It’s all over and Everton have done brilliantly to hold Chelsea scoreless at Goodison Park. They worked so, so hard to keep out a Chelsea side that will certainly see this as two points dropped.
90+4 min: Zappacosta tries to get another cross in from the right, but Cuco Martina has his measure again. The Everton full-back has been excellent in this second half. Or perhaps Zappacosta has just been very poor.
90+3 min: More brilliant last-ditch defending from Everton, who win a free-kick when Marcos Alonso is adjudged to have backed into Jordan Pickford as the goalkeeper tried to punch the ball clear.
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90+2 min: Now Chelsea have a corner. Fabregas sends the ball in, but it’s cleared and Everton wander upfield on the counter with Sandro on the ball. He beats Rudiger, only to be dispossessed.
90+1 min: Chance!!! Gylfi Sigurdsson sends in the corner and Michael Keane shakes off the attentions of Antonio Rudiger to get a clean header on goal. It’s a fantastic chance, but he sends the ball well wide.
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90 min: Everton win a free-kick on the edge of thye final third and their big men lumber forward. The ball’s played into the penalty area, cleared and played in again. They win a corner.
88 min: Zappacosta gets down the right touchline and sends his effort at a cross into the stands, prompting frustration from his team-mates waiting in the penalty area and fury from his manager on the touchline.
87 min: Eden Hazard makes room for a shot from the edge of the Everton penalty area and his low drive takes a deflection off – I think – Sigurdsson into the arms of Pickford.
86 min: Cuco Martina does well to halt another Chelsea assault down the right flank, diving in to take the ball off Zappacosta’s toe and put the ball out for a throw-in.
84 min: From deep, Fabregas plays a long diagonal to Zappacosta on the right flank. His attempted cross is met by a header from Phil Jagielka. It’s looking increasingly like it might be one of those days for Chelsea. They’ve five minutes and the knockings to come up with a winner.
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82 min: Chelsea attack down the right flank, with Zappacosta and Fabregas combining well. They win a corner, when Fabregas has a low diagonal drive deflected just wide of the far post. Nothing comes of it, but Sandro’s inability to hold the ball up when it’s played long to him means they’re soon on the attack again.
80 min: More Chelsea pressure, but Everton continue to defend well. Chelsea make their final substitution, with the Italian Davide Zappacosta coming on for Victor Moses.
79 min: Jonjoe Kenny picks out Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area with his back to goal. He’s immediately surrounded by three defenders and unable to turn, goes to ground. Chelsea clear.
77 min: Chelsea win another corner, which Fabregas plays low to the edge of the area. Eden Hazard doesn’t quite catch his attempted first-time shot, but Antonio Rudiger helps it goalwards from the penalty spot. Jordan Pickford gets down low to save.
75 min: Ashley Williams deflects a Victor Moses cross on to his own cross-bar with his a bullet header. What on earth was he doing there? He gets away with it and with the cross-bar still shaking, Chelsea get a corner. Nothing comes of it.
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72 min: Cesc Fabregas is penalised for offside on what is turning into an increasingly frustrating afternoon for Chelsea. An Everton goal here would really put the cat among the pigeons for the final 17 minutes, although they’ve yet to manage a shot on target so don’t hold your breath.
71 min: Chelsea substitution: Willian off, Michy Batshuayi on.
69 min: Eden Hazard takes the ball into the Everton penalty area, left side. He’s well marshalled, picks, plays the ball to Marcos Alonso who is nearby in support. He picks out Willian, who drags a shot well wide to sarcastic cheers from Everton’s fans.
67 min: Chelsea are ramping up the pressure on Everton, continuing to huff and puff but unable to find a way past a well organised five-man defence. They have dominated Everton, but could leave the three points behind them at Goodison Park this afternoon.
65 min: Willian picks out Eden Hazard on the left side of the Everton penalty area and the Belgian tries his luck with a low drive. Jordan Pickford gets down well to save.
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64 min: A misplaced pass by Cesc Fabregas puts Chelsea in trouble 10 yards in front of their own penalty area, but they scramble to recover.
64 min: Eden Hazard darts toweards the edge of the Chelsea penalty area, but is relieved of the ball by Morgan Schneiderlin.
63 min: Chelsea substitution: Cesc Fabregas on for Pedro.
61 min: Sigurdsson lofts the ball into the penalty area and Courtois darts of his line to leap and punch clear.
60 min: Dominic Calvert-Lewin wins a corner for Everton. With the sun out and in Thibaut Courtois’s eyes, this constitutes a decent opportunity to make life difficult for the Chelsea goalkeeper.
59 min: A reasonably promising looking Chelsea move breaks down when Willian is penalised for offside. The camera cuts to Eden Hazard, who is still limping.
58 min: Hazard receives treatment and hobbles to the sideline wincing with pain, before returning to action.
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56 min: Beni Baningime and Michael Keane team up to drag and hack down Eden Hazard as he tries to break on a counter-attack. Keane gets booked, while Hazard goes to ground and stays there holding his knee.
55 min: A fairly entertaining match seems to have gone a bit flat in the early stages of this second half. Everton get forward, with Jonjoe Kenny on the ball on the right wing. His attempted cross is blocked and put out for a throw-in by Antonio Rudiger.
52 min: Under pressure from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Cesar Azpilicueta is forced to larrup the ball into the stand and concede a throw-in deep inside his own half.
50 min: Idrissa Gueye limps off and is replaced with 19-year-old midfielder Beni Baningime.
49 min: Idrissa Gueye goes down injured, holding his left hamstring. He looks to the bench with the air about him of a man whose race is run for today. That’s something of a kick in the swingers for Allardyce, who has just made two substitutions.
48 min: Jordan Pickford gets down to parry a low drive from Pedro. The ball breaks to Marcos Alonso, who fires from the inside of the Everton penalty area with the follow-up. Ashley Williams sticks out a boot to block and hack clear.
Second half: Everton 0-0 Chelsea
46 min: Chelsea get the second half started, with no changes in personnel on their team. Sam Allardyce has made a double-substitution, bringing on Ashley Williams and Sandro Ramirez for Aaron Lennon and Tom Davies. Everton have switched to a three at the back, with Johnjo Kenny moving to a right wing-back and Cuco Martina to left wing-back. Ramirez takes up a position in support of Dominic Calvert Lewin up front.
Half-time: Everton 0-0 Chelsea
The deadlock remains unbroken at Goodison Park, where Chelsea threw the kitchen sink at Everton for the first 25 minutes or so, but couldn’t score. Everton have defended robustly and played their way into the game. They could have taken the lead just before the break if Dominic Calvert Lewin had surveyed his options after his good work in robbing Christiansen on the byline.
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44 min: The closing minutes of the first half are played out in almost complete silence at Goodison Park, where you can hear the players shouting at each other. The silence is broken by a good interception by Idrissa Gueye, who bursts forward down the right flank. Andreas Christiansen takes the ball from him, but gets caught out by Dominic Calvert-Lewin. With Gylfi Sigurdsson in acres of space and screaming for the ball in the Chelsea penalty area, the young striker shoots straight at Thibaut Coourtois from a narrow angle.
42 min: Willian tries to pick out Marcos Alonso with a deft back-heel, but just misses his target.
40 min: With Tom Davies in hot pursuit, Eden Hazard goes on a mazy meander through midfield with the ball on his toe, before picking out Willian on the edge of the Everton Penalty area. Morgan Schneiderlin relieves the Brazilian of possession. For all their dominance in the opening half hour, Chelsea haven’t really tested Everton too much. Leighton Baines cleared a couple of the line and Jordan Pickford has had one decent save to make, otherwise Everton have defended fairly stoutly and limited Chelsea’s opportunities. Their supporters will be happy enough with this performance so far.
39 min: A bit of a lull, during which Willian is penalised for a foul on Michael Keane and looks a mite lucky to escape a booking.
35 min: Jordan Pickford saves well from Pedro with a strong right-hand after the Spaniard was put through on goal by a good ball from Tiemoue Bakayoko. Pedro got plenty of power on his shot from a narrow angle, but Pickford managed to bat the ball out for a corner, from which nothing comes.
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34 min: N’Golo Kante tries to play Pedro in behind the Everton defence with a pass from deep, but Jordan Pickford reads the danger and is quick off his line to intercept.
Looks like Everton are really going to be hammered by the judges on the technical merit and artistic interpretation marks then @bglendenning?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) December 23, 2017
31 min: Tom Davies picks up the ball and advances on the Chelsea goal, before scuffing a shot well wide of the left upright from a few yards outside the penalty area. He snatched at that a bit.
28 min: Sky throw up a graphic detailing which players have had the most touches on the ball. Antonio Rudiger leads the field with 35 and is followed by eight of his team-mates before the first Everton player gets a mention: Dominic Calvert-Lewin with 17.
26 min: Marcos Alonso is penalised for hand-ball and wags the forefinger of the offending paw at Bobby Madley after giving the referee a dressing down for his impudence.
24 min: A quarter way through the match and Everton have weathered the Chelsea storm thus far. Aaron Lennon gets on the ball and jinks down the right flank, but his pass inside is intercepted by N’Golo Kante.
22 min: Willian and Marcos Alonso stand over the basll, but it’s Willian who tries to sneak the ball past the near side of the wall and in to the top right-hand corner with his right foot. Close, but no cigar.
21 min: Cuco Martina is booked for a trip on Victor Moses just outside the Everton penalty area. Free-kick for Chelsea, in prime Marcos Alonso territory, well left of centre.
20 min: Jogging down the right touchline, Victor Moses picks up a pass from the centre and drills the ball across the face of Everton’s goal trying to pick out Eden Hazard. He fails to find his man.
19 min: Everton get forward again, but their rare sortie into Chelsea territory breaks down when a poor touch from Gylfi Sigurdsson sends the ball out of play.
16 min: “It’s a steep learning curve for him being so new to the team,” says Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith of Everton right-back Jonjoe Kenny, who seems to have been targetted as Everton’s weak link by Antonio Conte. Many of Chelsea’s attacks are down his wing, but the youngster is coping reasonably well with everything Marcos Alonso and Eden Hazard have thrown at him so far.
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14 min: More Chelsea pressure. Jordan Pickford parries a Hazard shot from distance and the ball drops invitingly for N’Golo Kante. The Chelsea midfielder slices his effort from 25 yards so badly that the ball goes out for a throw-in ... almost behind from where he shot.
13 min: Victor Moses tries to volley the ball across the face of goal after being picked out by a cross-field ball from Eden Hazard. His effort his blocked and Everton clear again. Everton’s defenders are earning their money today, but it’s difficult to see them holding firm for another 65 minutes if Chelsea continue applying this kind of pressure.
12 min: Dominic Calvert-Lewin is booked for a foul on Victor Moses.
9 min: Willian plays the ball wide to Alonso on the left touchline. From the ensuing move, Phil Jagielka is forced to make two instinctive goal-line clearances in quick succession from Tiemoue Bakayoko and Willian after Marcos Alonso had a diagonal volley only half scrambled clear.
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8 min: More pressure from Chelsea, with Pedro sending a cross in to the Everton penalty area, that’s a mite too far behind Willian. Everton clear, somewhat frantically.
6 min: Everton get the ball in the final third of the pitch for the first time, but good defending from Cesar Azpilicueta denies Gylfi Sigurdsson getting clean through on goal from a promising position.
5 min: Cesar Azpilicueta wins a corner for Chelsea, which Willian plays short to Victor Moses. The ball’s pinged around the edge of the Everton penalty area, before Pedro is teed up for a shot. His low drive fizzes wide of the right upright.
3 min: An early indication of things to come? Phil Jagielka shepherds the ball back to Jordan Pickford, who hoofs it deep into Chelsea territory despite there not being a single Everton player in that half of the field.
2 min: Victor moses sends in a cross from the right, but having given Michael Keane and Phil Jagielka the slip, Eden Hazard is unable to get a touch on the ball and steer it goalwards. The ball swirls across the face of goal and Marcos Alonso succeeds only in hitting the side-netting with his desperate dive.
Everton v Chelsea is go!
Everton kick off, playing in their customary home strip of blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. Chelsea’s players wear white shirts and shorts, with blue socks that look slightly incongruous with the rest of their attire. Anyway, enough of my fashion advice, let’s get on with the football.
Not long now: The teams march up the steps from the tunnel out on to the Goodison Park pitch led by referee Bobby Madley and his team of match officials. It’s a misty day on Merseyside, but not so bad that we won’t be able to see what’s going on.
Antonio Conte speaks ...
“At this moment it is the best option for us,” he tells Sky Sports, when asked about his decision to play with this particular front three. “I have to make the best decision for the team, these players are in good form at the moment. Alvaro Morata is out and Michy Batshuayi played the game against Bournemouth and is still coming back from injury.”
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Some interesting omissions ...
Sam Allardyce has confirmed that Wayne Rooney is out due to illness, specifically a head cold bad enough to render him unfit to play. Tom Davies comes in for him. Meanwhile in the Chelsea ranks, Gary Cahill sits this one out on the bench, with Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christiansen and Antonio Rudiger filling the centre-back berths. Despite the absence of Alvaro Morata, Michy Batshuayi still can’t get in the Chelsea side, a state of affairs that suggests the Stamford Bridge jig is up for him.
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Everton v Chelsea line-ups
Everton: Pickford, Kenny, Jagielka, Keane, Martina, Schneiderlin, Gueye, Davies, Lennon, Calvert-Lewin, Sigurdsson.
Subs: Williams, Bolasie, Sandro, Niasse, Holgate, Robles, Baningime.
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Willian, Pedro, Hazard.
Subs: Hudson-Odoi, Caballero, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Zappacosta, Batshuayi, Cahill.
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire)
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Early team news ...
Wayne Rooney is not in Everton’s matchday squad, for reasons that remain unclear. Yannick Bolasie is in line for a recall to the bench, more than a year after rupturing knee ligaments against Manchester United last December. Leighton Baines, Maarten Stekelenburg and Ross Barkley remain injured, while Seamus Coleman and Ramiro Funes Mori are long term absentees.
Chelsea will line out todfaqy without Alvaro Morata, who sits this one out on the Naughty Step after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Bournemouth on Wednesday. Gary Cahill has been dropped to the bench, while David Luiz is also out and remains linked with a January exit from Stamford Bridge.
Preamble
Barry will be here shortly.
