Chelsea vs. Everton has produced some of the Blues’ (both shades) most exciting matches of the last few years. What will this evening’s fixture hold?
Going back to Didier Drogba’s screamer up through John Terry’s last-minute offside goal last year, Chelsea vs. Everton rarely disappoints. Goals come in waves and Chelsea puts on a solid show.
The Blues have not defeated Everton in the last three meetings, but won five of the previous six. Chelsea are 68W-53D-54L all-time against the Premier League’s most losing side ever. Here are our predictions for today’s edition.
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Ben Croft: Chelsea 2 – 0 Everton. Romelu Lukaku will join Zlatan Ibrahimovic in David Luiz’s pocket. Ross Barkley will join Paul Pogba in N’Golo Kante’s pocket. Diego Costa and Eden Hazard will do what they do best and get a goal each! Everton are decent but Chelsea will have too much for them.
Travis Tyler: 3 – 1. Ronald Koeman has quietly taken Everton towards the top of the table, but they still struggle to put together a full 90 minutes of football. In other words, it’s still Everton. Romelu Lukaku will score early, before Chelsea kick it into overdrive for the rest of the game. Lukaku will look longingly at Conte hugging Chelsea players and think about what might have been.
Khaled Abdallah: 1 – 0. Ronald Koeman has the Toffees playing the way his Southampton sides did, with solid defense and an attack built on a strong center-forward. Everton have the third-best defense in the league in terms of goals against. They will prove hard to break down but Chelsea have the firepower to do it. The Blues will score early and the home crowd pushes them to hold up defensively for a tense second half.
Elkebir Lamrani: 1 – 0. Everton are on a high and so are the London Blues. The 3-4-3 will prove too powerful for the Toffees, though
Andre Carlisle: 1 – 2. I will squeeze every ounce of sorcery out of this curdled pig blood and eye of newt stew. Having said that, Idrissa Gueye – Everton’s N’Golo Kanté impersonator – picked up his fifth yellow in their last match and is suspended against the (correct shade of) Blues. The Lingala linkup between Lukaku and Yannick Bolasie will be hard to totally shut down. Thibaut Courtois’s run of clean sheets will end, but Chelsea should be able to boss the match otherwise. Full time should see a 3-1 scoreline in favor of the Fighting Conte’s.
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Scott Brant: 4 – 2. With the Blues in great form, I am reluctantly predicting a high scoring affair. It’s no 6-3 goal-fest like two years ago, but still a thrilling affair. Hazard will score a brace.