Venue: Goodison Park
Date: Wednesday, 10 February
Kick-off: 2000 GMT
Our game at the weekend – or at least Arsene Wenger and Michael Ballack’s verbal spar in the press after it – seem to have taken a bit of the focus away from John Terry and pointed it back towards what happens on the pitch. But whilst I’ve no doubt the Chelsea captain is grateful Wenger is such a sore loser, the amount of attention Terry was getting before that game certainly didn’t seem to do us any harm. And with things so tight at the top of the table, we’ll need to recapture the same team spirit and unity tonight we showed against Arsenal if we’re going to keep top spot.
MANAGERS’ VIEWS
Despite their narrow defeat against Liverpool at the weekend, Moyes is pretty upbeat going into tonight’s game, saying “We don’t really need to dust ourselves down. We went nine unbeaten before it and we’ve lost a game to a set-piece. We had an awful lot of the ball and there are a lot of positives to take. We are not going to get too down about it. We are going to try to kick on and win the next game against Chelsea. I think we are playing well and don’t have anything to fear, but we respect Chelsea because they have really good players.”
Carlo Ancelotti meanwhile, is still laughing off Wenger’s comments, stating “I think everyone can say everything about the game. I think Ballack explained his position about it. I think Ballack said good things. We prepared for the game and did what we wanted to do on the pitch. I heard that Wenger said about our fouls in the game but we did the same (number) as Arsenal.” Although the Chelsea boss will be taking things much more seriously again tonight, insisting “It could be a very important moment in the Premier League. We have Everton, United play Aston Villa, it could be an important day, we need to win to stay top of the table.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Everton, Fellaini (ankle) misses out through injury whilst Pienaar sits the game out after seeing red at the weekend. David Moyes could welcome back fit-again Arteta.
For Chelsea, Essien, Bosingwa and Belletti all remain out with knee injuries and Deco, who could also have joined the dodgy knee club, is doubtful. John Terry should be fit after the dead leg he suffered against Arsenal at the weekend.
TEAMS
EVERTON (from): Howard, Neville, Heitinga, Distin, Baines, Senderos, Yobo, Cahill, Rodwell, Arteta, Osman, Bilyaletdinov, Coleman, Saha, Donovan, Yakubu, Anichebe, Vaughan, Duffy, Baxter, Nash.
CHELSEA: (from): Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole, Ballack, Deco, Lampard, J Cole, Malouda, Anelka, Sturridge, Borini, Ferreira, Alex, Zhirkov, Kakuta, Obi.
LAST MEETING
Chelsea 3-3 Everton (12 December 2009)
PREDICTION
Everton were on a decent run before losing to Liverpool at the weekend and their last three home games have all ended in 2-0 wins. They might not have beaten us since 2000 but they’ve got a draw off us in our last three Premier League games and bearing in mind they completely exposed our weakness at set pieces in our 3-all draw at Stamford Bridge, this game probably won’t be a game for the faint-hearted.
REFEREE
Alan Wiley
Blue is the colour
