If I had a man-of-the-match award to give at the end of yesterday’s gritty nil-nil draw at Goodison Park, I would split it into three. The first two pieces I would hand to Tosin Adarabioyo and Moisés Caicedo for the number of timely interventions they made to prevent Everton from gaining the ascendancy. To say they were immense would be understating the obvious. The last, and possibly largest, piece of the imaginary award would go to our number 1, Roberto Sanchez. Without him, we would have left Merseyside empty-handed and been just a point above Arsenal in the standings.
Sanchez vs. Mangala
Sanchez was first called into action by a sequence of play birthed by a moment of brilliance from Everton’s left-forward Iliman Ndiaye. He shifted the ball between his feet and slipped a through pass to Abdoulaye Doucouré, taking Cole Palmer, Axel Disasi and Caicedo out of the play. Doucouré, in turn, took out Enzo Fernandez with an infield ball to Orel Mangala. The Belgian midfielder had time and space to pick his spot and fired a low 25-foot drive that bounced just before the goal. Sanchez needed to shift his feet quickly and throw himself to the right, using every inch of his 6’6” frame to push the shot beyond his post. Mangala would threaten again from distance in the second half, but the keeper easily smothered that effort.
Christmas miracle
Ndiaye was again at the root of the Spanish goalkeeper’s next piece of magic. When his cross evaded the entire CFC backline, locating an unmarked Jack Harrison at the far post, all the color drained from my face. I was convinced I was about to witness the game’s opening goal. Harrison did what every coach would advise his forward to do in such a position- hit it across goal with conviction. But up stepped Sanchez to save the day with his outstretched right leg. A Christmas miracle that must have brought a tear of relief to many a Blues fan’s eyes. But our six-foot Santa wasn’t done. A few minutes later, he got a crucial touch on Everton substitute Jesper Lindstrom’s square pass which took it away from the lurking Beto with Chelsea’s two center halves sucked in towards goal. Adarabioyo then got a vital block on what Ndiaye thought was an easy tap-in.
Resolute defending by Maresca
In his post-match interview, coach Enzo Maresca refused to single out his defenders and instead hailed the defensive performance of the entire team. But Sanchez literally was the difference between victory and defeat for the Blues last night. Maresca has had to do his share of defending, repeatedly refusing to heed calls to drop the Spaniard from his starting 11 following a few shaky moments and the solid performances of his understudy Filip Jørgensen. And Sanchez’s rising confidence is evidence of the effect of his manager’s faith in him. Not only was his shot-stopping on point yesterday, his distribution was commendable; he had 80% passing accuracy in the game.
Much as the goalless draw represents two precious dropped points and a missed opportunity to close the gap on league leaders Liverpool. Both coach and player expressed satisfaction with the result.