Chelsea vs Everton: Preview & Prediction

 

Chelsea will be the hot favourites to win this game and with Manchester City crushing Leeds in midweek they are almost obliged too. The problem for Chelsea who have been nearly perfect this season is that despite this form they are in 3rd place and 5 points behind City. This is a league that can change very quickly and if the Blues were to drop points here and then at the weekend all of a sudden City could have a very healthy lead over them.

 

Thomas Tuchel's side does have an 8 point lead over 4th placed West Ham and that is a great safety net. In truth recent form for Chelsea has looked patchy. They did beat Leeds in their last game at home but it finished a nervy 3-2, and in their Champions League game they drew 3-3 with Zenit although had qualified for the knock out stages. Before that there was a win at Watford but again it was a close game that finished 2-1, and before that they could only draw 1-1 against Manchester United at a time that United were struggling under their former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

 

The pressure is on Rafa Benitez at Everton with the club winning just 1 game since the end of September. They are in 14th place with 18 points and are currently seven above the relegation zone. Just two wins could see Everton climb into the top 10 but at the same time any observers of the game would doubt that this Everton team could achieve such heights.

 

The worrying aspect to Everton's season has been their away form with just one win so far and from a possible 24 points on the road they have earned just 5 and have lost their last four games. Everton's last game was away from home and they were beaten 3-1 by Crystal Palace, another recent away loss was against Brentford, and of course a few weeks ago Everton lost to their eternal rivals Liverpool 4-1 at home. There was some good news for the club as they did beat Arsenal 2-1 at home but one victory in almost three months isn't going to cut it in the Premier League and not many will be thinking that Everton will get anything in this game either.

 

 

 

Chelsea: Trevoh Chalobah has a hamstring injury but is being rated at 50/50 to be involved in this match. Ben Chilwell is out for another month at least with his knee injury. N'Golo Kante could be assessed with his knee injury and remains 50/50 for this game. Mateo Kovacic has Covid-19 and is ruled out.

 

Everton: Richarlison is out for a possible two weeks with a calf injury. Allan has a nagging muscle injury but is being tipped to be fine but will need to be assessed. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is still out with his thigh injury and is not expected back for another 11 days. Seamus Coleman is a major doubt with his foot injury. Yerry Mina is expected to miss another game with his recent calf injury.

 

 

 

Last season Chelsea won this fixture 2-0.

 

Everton have managed 3 wins from the last 11 meetings against Chelsea.

 

It's been 27 years since Everton beat Chelsea away from home in a league match.

 

 

 

Oh dear just what will Rafa Benitez be thinking ahead of this game. Effectively his front two are missing and quality stalwarts like Allan, Coleman and Mina are very doubtful and/or are ruled out and they are about to play the European champions away from home. As mentioned above Everton have a terrible record at Chelsea, they did win a penalty shoot out contest in the FA Cup a few years ago but it's been a generation since they recorded victory here.

 

Romelu Lukaku much like Harry Kane at Tottenham has had a quiet season so far but he is a dangerous player of course and how many times have we seen a former player to score against his old club? He should have plenty of opportunities in front of goal, and we think he can score in this game.

 

It is true that perhaps Chelsea have not been firing on all cylinders lately but they will fancy their chances of a win against an Everton side who are woefully out of form and have key injuries too. The worry is that Chelsea take some inspiration from Manchester City's 7-0 mauling of Leeds and Everton are going to be playing much of this game without the ball and will have to be incredibly focused and have luck to walk away with anything, it is, under the conditions very unlikely that they will.

 

 

 

Half Time/Full Time: Chelsea/Chelsea at 1.80

 

Anytime goalscorer: Romelu Lukaku at 1.61