Chelsea travel to face a resurgent Everton side under the stewardship of the newly appointed Sam Allardyce. The Blues have struggled with newly-appointed British managers this season, and Sam Allardyce will provide a thorough challenge.
We all know Big Sam’s way. His teams are stubborn and hard to beat. You know when you’ve played an Allardyce team. And fans certainly know when you’ve watched your team try to beat one.
Sam Allardyce comes in for a fair degree of criticism regarding his tactics, much of which may not be entirely reasonable. His much-maligned methodology simply sets up whichever team he is managing in a way that best suits the players at his disposal. Those teams have generally been at the wrong end of the league. He has never really had the luxury of managing a top four team or, in this case, potential top four team. Everton could be his big chance to break that cycle.
Chelsea’s task on Saturday is finding a way of stopping Everton’s Allardyce revival. It will not be easy, but Antonio Conte has the ability to find a way to win in tricky circumstances. By the same token, he has also managed to engineer defeats in games where his team ought to be able to win. Most notably, these have come against the lesser London teams.
Allardyce likes to play the 4-1-4-1 system that has worked well over the years for him. Recently against Liverpool he changed to the English system, using a more traditional 4-4-2. This worked, too, as he came away from Anfield with a 1-1 draw. That is no mean achievement for any team against Jurgen Klopp’s free-flowing attacks. Should Allardyce go the same way against Chelsea, Conte’s preferred 3-4-3 formation will have to work extremely hard to find a path to goal.
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Alvaro Morata is currently sidelined through suspension having unfortunately (stupidly?) picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Bournemouth in midweek. Conte has few other options at striker. It’s not so much that Conte does not trust Michy Batshuayi, but more that the player is not suited to the lone striker role the Italian’s systems favour. Eden Hazard will have to play up front once more as the focal point of Chelsea’s attack.
If Everton sit back and look to play on the break, Chelsea have the ability to find a way of scoring. Any team with a player of Eden Hazard’s quality are going to create chances. The question is whether those around him are able to take them. Last week against Southampton, Hazard fashioned a number of opportunities for Pedro. The Spaniard was unable to capitalise on any of them. Chelsea will have to be more clinical in front of goal to have any chance of victory.
Chelsea have some additional obstacles to overcome if they are to win in this game. These are not physical factors but psychological ones, and they will probably have more of an effect on proceedings than anything Antonio Conte does. So far this season, Chelsea have lost four Premier League games. Those defeats came against Burnley, Manchester City, Crystal Palace, and West Ham. Spot the odd one out.
Well, once again, it’s all about the managers. Burnley are managed by the Sean Dyche: British. Crystal Palace are managed by Roy Hodgson: British. West Ham are managed by David Moyes: British. The anomaly is Pep Guardiola: Spanish. In any case, City smash everyone, so they don’t even count.
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Making the losses worse, Palace won against the odds with a new manager, as did West Ham. Sam Allardyce is new in the role, so you can see where this is going. If Chelsea are to gain three pre-Christmas points, as well as scoring against a stubborn Sam Allardyce Everton side, they will have to beat the British manager hoodoo that has cursed the club so far this season.