Not an easy one to call here as Everton under Allardyce has registered 4 wins and a draw out of 5 and has led 4 different teams to victory over Chelsea. No Alvaro Morata due to foolishly celebrating with the crowd after his winning goal against Bournemouth midweek. I can’t see Conte trusting Batshuayi with the striking role and fully expect him to play Hazard in the false striker role supported by Willian & Pedro. All that given Chelsea will still probably start favourites as this will be Fat Sams hardest fixture to date but I see this as a tough acrimonious game but one I think we can win, I’m going for a 2-1 away win. Last seasons win at Goodison. KTBFFH.
On reflection of the first half I’d say that comment was spot on! We’ve started with a high tempo and have totally controlled the game without carving out any real chances bar the great save from Pedro.
Disappointed as we have seldom dominated a team as we did against Everton but I’ll give them credit for toughing it out rather than our ability to create decent chances from such dominance. We sorely missed Morata and the inclusion of Batshuayi was inconsequential as was Zappercosta who spunked 3 or 4 good chances to cross the ball. I personally would have kept with what we started with until 70 minutes then bought on Fabregas for Bakayoko who wasn’t needed in the second half. We have to look at that as 2 points dropped but what rankles more is the twice I’ve seen Everton this year they are head and shoulders the worst team in the league.
Yes! All the starting eleven did very well and we need to play like that verses Barcelona, Rudiger, Dave & Christensen all did superb for what they had to deal with. Pedro, Hazard & Willian were lively and Kante was well...Kante. Didn’t get the rub of the green on the chances we had, oh well...onwards and upwards.
Hahaha, the ‘head and shoulders’ worst team in the league, sat in 9th and on a 7 match unbeaten run, **** off Skiddy
That’s based over the two games with us this season mate going forward you offered zero in those. What was wrong with fatty?
No it’s based on your abysmal two performances, lucky our guys couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo today or you’d probably have gone for a cricket score. Fatty the granny shagger, what was he out for?
Apologies I read that wrong lol. Flu I think It was ugly no argument, but given where we’ve come from in the last 4 or 5 weeks it was sensible pragmatism same as we employed at the pit. We’ve gone from shipping goals like relegation certainties to clean sheets in a very short space of time. I’ll take it.
You’ve had some good results and I knew it was going to be like it was and said as much in my opening summery. Maybe it’s our style of play against you that makes the manager/s play defensively. Offensively we were ****e today with 25 shots but only 8 on target. You’ve a good keeper though, he earned his corn today.
Very good defensive effort from Everton, and another dumb selection by Conte. Hazard is a waste of time as a striker and Everton must have known this cause they did exactly what was needed to reduce him to a bit player. We needed a proper striker with size and height, ie Michy . Instead we got another example of the lack of power in our team. Others have sussed this out and until we add some real firepower in midfield and upfront, we can expect more of the same against the lower teams. As well as our front men play, and they all played well, until we restore more balance and variety in the team, get used to games like this. The back 3 were better with Rudiger and Alonso really benefited from him. .
Batshuayi is not the answer he was bog average when he came on and did zilch, he’s a nice lad but he ain’t a Chelsea striker in a million years. Hopefully we can unload him in the summer for someone who fits the bill
Agree ,even though I keep hoping he'll come good, he just never does. Nevertheless we'd have been better against Everton with him on the field as at least he's got some size about him. What do you think about trying 2 up front, see if Morata and Michy can combine and give us some difference in approach?
