Date: Saturday 7th December 2019
Venue: Goodison Park
Kick-off: 12:30 GMT
After the happy homecoming of JT in our win over Villa midweek, we travel to Goodison Park for today’s early kick-off to take on manager-less Everton.
The Toffees come into today’s game after a predictable arse kicking from Liverpool midweek, whilst we got back to winning ways against Aston Villa and will be looking for our sixth away win of the season today.
Goodison Park is not our happiest hunting ground though and we seem to be subject to a large dose of Sod’s Law right now. With West Ham having their FA Cup against us last week with their 3rd choice keeper playing like Shilton (before going back to their usual form in their next game). Now, after a woeful first half of the season, Everton sack Silva and shove a club legend in as caretaker manager to get them right up for a game just in time for our visit.
Realistically, with the gaps our backline offer up, the frustration Everton bring, and knowing ourselves the immediate impact a club legend can have at the wheel, we’re going to struggle to come away from this one with anything.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Everton caretaker manager Duncan Ferguson, says “The situation is what it is. We are in the bottom three, there’s no hiding from that. But there’s plenty of time ahead of us. We just have to crack on and pick up some points, and I’m sure we will climb the table very soon.
They’re [Chelsea] doing a great job and they’re a top team. We need to cover every blade of grass and fight for every ball. We’ll put a gameplan together and hopefully it’ll come off.”
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, meanwhile, says “First of all, any trip to Everton is tough. I went there as a player many a time. The atmosphere in the stadium and the support of the home fans is big. I am sure there will be a bounce effect for them, and for one of their heroes in charge of them in the short term. We will have to be very much on our guard. We slightly had it with West Ham last week. There was a lot of talk about what bad form they were in, and what might happen if they lost another game, and we lost the match. There’s a small reminder for us last Saturday.
What I tell the players will be exactly the same: this is a dangerous, dangerous team to play at this moment particularly. They will have, certainly in the early parts of the game, and I think throughout, maybe an extra energy to them. Clubs rally at these moments, fans rally, and the players will want to rally and show what they can do. It’s going to be a tough, tough match.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Everton, Seamus Coleman (rib) and Fabian Delph (hamstring) remain out and Yerry Mina is a doubt.
For Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Achilles), van Ginkel (ACL), and Antonio Rudiger (groin) all remain out. Ross Barkley (illness) is back in contention although shouldn’t get near the pitch realistically.
TEAMS
EVERTON (Possible line-up): Pickford; Coleman, Mina, Keane, Digne; Schneiderlin, Davies; Iwobi, Sigurdsson, Bernard; Richarlison
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Emerson; Jorginho; Kante; Willian, Mount; Pulisic; Abraham.
LAST SEASON
Everton 2-0 Chelsea (17 March 2019)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
EVERTON: LDWLLL
CHELSEA: WWWLLW
OTHER STUFF
- Everton won this fixture 2-0 last season
- Everton have lost just once at Goodison Park in the past five meetings
- Chelsea have not scored against Everton in the Premier League since August 2017.
- Everton have collected just seven points from their last 11 Premier League games.
- Everton have lost only one of their last six Premier League home matches against established top-six opposition
- Everton have kept only one clean sheet in six home games
- Chelsea have won five of their seven league away matches in 2019-20
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Everton 1-1 Chelsea
Sky Sports: Everton 2-1 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Everton 2-2 Chelsea
Blue is the colour
