Key events
36 min: Neto gets his skates on down the right and Mykolenko is glad the pass is overhit and runs through to Pickford.
35 min: Chelsea completely dominating the midfield here, with Enzo Fernandez really pulling the strings. Cole Palmer still pretty quite through as he looks to end his 16-match goal drought.
33 min: Lovely switch out left to Madueke, who holds firm in a challenge from Patterson. O’Brien and Branthwaite deal with a cross and then a shot as Chelsea ramp up the pressure.
31 min: Can Everton find a response? There’s very little coming from their frontmen so far. Joe Cole says Ndiaye is playing too centrally.
29 min: Chelsea are up to fourth in the live table, ahead of Nottingham Forest on goal difference.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Everton (Jackson 27)
Chalobah wins the ball off Beto in the centre-circle. Enzo plays a straight, simple pass ahead to Jackson and the centre-forward swivels and, from just outside the area, thumps a low shot into the bottom corner. Great finish. 1-0 Chelsea.
26 min: Jackson dances past Branthwaite and is fouled, giving Chelsea a free-kick in a central area. Enzo’s cross is flapped at by Pickford, setting up Cucurella about 15 yards out but his bouncing shot drifts wide. But…
24 min: Ndiaye dribbles into a dangerous position and Everton throw a cross into the box which Chalobah does well to stretch his neck muscles and head clear.
23 min: Halfway through the first half and and the xG count reads: Chelsea 0.08, Everton 0.00.
21 min: Some Everton possession but only fleeting as Chelsea win back the ball. Madueke tries a cross from the left but O’Brien hacks clear.
19 min: Neto drives and wins Chelsea’s fourth corner of the game. Up come the centre-backs but it’s a poor floaty delivery to Jackson, who fouls on the edge of the box and the moment is gone.
18 min: Joe Cole, on co-comms, spots the banned Maresca sat at the back of the press box and says they’ve given him an awful viewing seat.
17 min: A graphic shows that Chelsea have taken more shots at home than any other team this season: 301 of them. They’ve scored with just 30 though.
15 min: Everton have a first real chance to break with numbers but pass the ball out of play. Just a warning to Chelsea, who have easily been the better side in the first quarter of an hour.
14 min: Madueke bursts off the left-flank, comes inside and, from inside the D, thumps a right-foot shot destined for the far corner but Pickford palms it behind. The corner is cleared.
12 min: Chelsea win the first corner of the game, down the right. They go short to Palmer, whose angled cross is met by Colwill’s head at the back post but nodded behind for another corner. Enzo takes this one from the opposite side but Branthwaite gets his nut on it. The hosts press again and Neto’s cross only just evades Madueke.
11 min: Colwill plays a pass over the top for Palmer and it looks dangerous but he’s smothered after briefly getting goalside of the Everton defence. Chelsea willing to go long here.
9 min: Neto gets a sprint on down the right, heading the pass into the area but Pickford is out to collect before the winger can get his next touch.
8 min: Chelsea go long but balls like that are meat and drink for the Everton centre-backs. Branthwaite heads that one away.
7 min: Cole Palmer gets a first real touch but sees nothing ahead and goes sideways.
5 min: First moment for Everton as Lavia, perhaps rusty, makes a clumsy challenge on Mykolenko. From the free-kick, Harrison’s delivery bounces deep into the area and the ball ends back near the halfway. But Everton will want to test Sanchez and they pump a ball into the box which the Chelsea goalkeeper just about grabs from Beto while looking far from convincing in the process.
4 min: Enzo spreads a ball out to the right but Ndiaye is alert and heads back to his goalkeeper. As expected, Chelsea bossing the early possession.
2 min: Bit of a weird first kick-out from Pickford although Everton end up with a throw.
1 min: An early foul as Beto fouls Cucurella near the edge of the Chelsea area. From the free-kick, Nicolas Jackson looks to find space through the middle but Everton have him covered.
Everton get the ball rolling. We’re off!
Here come the teams. A warm handshake between Chelsea’s Reece James (a sub today) and Everton’s Jordan Pickford, England teammates of ccourse.
Kick-off five minutes away now. Meanwhile…
Nicholas Way: “Mourinho might have been Macbeth earlier in his career, but these days he’s more like King Lear.”
John Cox: “Mourinho has to be lago, surely?”
David Moyes’ Premier League record at Stamford Bridge shows no wins from 19 games. He has a few like this at big grounds, doesn’t he? Anfield springs to mind. Here he is speaking to TNT’s Darren Fletcher, who starts by wishing the Everton boss a happy birthday (62) for yesterday.
Moyes on his players: “They’ve picked themselves up completely, got some brilliant results, got themselves in position where we’re safe now in the Premier League. They’ve all stepped up. Their form has been as good as teams at the top end of the league at the moment. We obviously lack some quality, we need to change some things in the summer but I have to say this group of players have done really well.”
Cormac Culkeen writes: “Surely if we’re talking about football and Shakespeare, Joseph Mourinho is the ideal Macbeth? Fits the concept perfectly, I think.”
Fun fact: there was a South African football called MacBeth Sibaya.
Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella has also been speaking to TNT Sports: “The morale is good. Today is a very important game for us. We had a good comeback last weekend so today we have a good opportunity to get another three points and be ready for the last games.
“The fans need to stay with us. We will have moments that we need to suffer but if we stay together we can do it. We have prepared well for the game and we know it is massive for us. We are going all out for everything.”
Enzo Maresco celebrates his 50th game in charge of Chelsea by being banished from the touchline. “I will be watching in the stand behind the bench,” he explains, looking slightly sheepish. “We have five games to go and we are going to try and win all the games. For sure, we can start today.”
On Cole Palmer’s goal drought, he says: “I have a feeling today that it will be a good day for Cole and hopefully I’m not wrong.”
Gary Naylor writes: “In Stratford Upon Avon for the matinee of Much Ado About Nothing. “Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s original rom-com set in the world of top-flight football and celebrity culture, where scandal-filled rivalries are the hottest new thing and lads and WAGs collide.” Might work… and might not. This Beatrice is a journo and Benedick a player (which kinda makes sense), but which other characters from Shakey’s canon map on to footballers? Gazza is Falstaff of course, Enzo Maresca will be keeping an eye out for a Cassius and Brutus if he loses today and I’m increasingly inclined to cast Reuben Amorim as Prospero, searching for the old magic on his lonely Old Trafford island.”
Send in any Bard banter here. I’m not much use, having tuned out a bit during English Lit although I did go on a sixth-form trip to Stratford to see Shakey’s work. Trouble is, my main recollection is buying a New Order album in a local record shop. ‘Brotherhood’ I think.
Peter Crouch on TNT now cracking a gag about his tan. It’s because he’s nearer the sun due to being tall, he quips.
Beto had a spurt of five goals in five games back in February but the Everton striker has lost his scoring touch since. Throw in a pair of games for his country, Guinea-Bissau, to make this stat stand out more and he’s gone nine games without a goal.
That Chelsea front four certainly has bags of talent. Neto has been a weird one this season. The fear was that he’d spent half of it on the sidelines having done his hammy but the bottom line is that he’s just not been very good: five goals in 39 apperances and only four in the league. Maybe the touch, turn, bang winner he fired home in injury-time against Fulham last weekend is a sign of things to come.
Yara El-Shaboury
Yara El-Shaboury is our roving reporter at Stamford Bridge today and she brings you this…
Yesterday, Enzo Maresca said Chelsea’s transfer plans in the summer will hinge on the team qualifying for the Champions League next season and today’s early kick-off against Everton will be a huge factor in whether that dream will come to fruition.
The home side have struggled in front of goal of late, with several of their forwards out of form. That hasn’t deterred the Chelsea fans outside of Stamford Bridge though. A pack of fans are in full voice, singing ‘Cole Palmer, he’s going to score’ while waiting for the team bus. Not a particularly creative chant but one that shows how much belief supporters have in the 22-year-old who is on a 16-game goal drought. He starts alongside Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto and Nicolas Jackson.
For Chelsea, this is Romeo Lavia’s first start since January. It’s a decent fact but nothing compared to the stat that Cole Palmer hasn’t scored for 16 games. With Lavia partnering Enzo Fernandes in central midfield, Moses Caicedo is shunted to right-back, meaning skipper Reece James only starts on the bench.
How weird to list an Everton team without writing the name Tarkowski. A hamstring injury has ruled the defender out for the season and his absence here ends a run of 109 consecutive Premier League games.
Teams
Chelsea: Sanchez, Caicedo, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella, Lavia, Enzo, Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Jackson.
Subs: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Badiashile, Tosin, James, Dewsbury-Hall, George, Sancho, Nkunku.
Everton: Pickford, Patterson, O’Brien, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gana, Garner, Doucoure, Harrison, Ndiaye, Beto.
Subs: Virginia, Begovic, Keane, McNeil, Chermiti, Young, Coleman, Alcaraz, Iroegbunam.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire).
Preamble
Chelsea have played 49 matches in all competitions this season and just two have ended goalless. The first was against Everton three days before Christmas, a result which ended an eight-game winning streak and sparked a decline in fortunes. Enzo Maresca’s side lost their next two matches. In truth, that Everton stalemate may well be a turning point from which they’ve never really recovered. Chelsea still have hopes of a top-five finish and a Champions League spot next season but it’s absolutely in the balance. With Liverpool and Arsenal taking up two places, it’s now a five-horse race for the remaining three between Man City (61pts), Nottingham Forest (60), Newcastle (59), Chelsea (57) and Aston Villa (57). Chelsea, Forest and Newcastle have a game in hand following Man City’s dramatic 2-1 in win over Villa in midweek.
For Everton, the David Moyes new manager bounce has gone rather flat. The returning hero led his side to a flurry of points to immediately rule out any fears of relegation but a current thermometer check shows just one league win in eight. A kinder take is that they’ve drawn five of those games and the only defeats were to Liverpool and Manchester City.
If all that suggests Everton might just nick another point here, the last meeting between the pair at Stamford Bridge does not. Rewind to April 2024 and Chelsea thrashed the Toffees 6-0, a young chap called Cole Palmer finishing with four goals after completing a hat-trick inside 30 minutes.
With everything virtually rubber-stamped at the top and bottom of the table, the battle for European spots is where it’s at now. Let’s get this thing on! Kick-off is at 12.30pm.
