Chelsea (a) Too much, too young
Worst fears confirmed about Doucoure, looks like it’ll be somewhere between 6-8 weeks before he’ll be back, Allan replacing him. Back 4 picked itself, Iwobi retained his place & Sigurdsson was in for Bernard.
The minute the teams were announced & you compared the options from the bench & that ultimately is the picture that tells the story of how far behind we are, but also how far we’ve come.
For 30 minutes Everton’s game plan was sound, poor communication between Holgate & Iwobi gave Chelsea their first real clear cut opportunity & a Havertz effort that was going wide ricocheted off Ben Godfrey, no chance for Pickford to stop it. Really unlucky. But you could see Chelsea’s intent from the off, their pressing was incredible, their ability to rotate is up there with Man City 1-0.
A half chance from Gomes that was comfortably saved by Mendy & a deflected Digne free kick was the best that Everton could muster, Pickford keeping Alonso out with a brilliant save, the shot took a touch off of Michael Keane which made Pickford’s reactions even better HT 1-0.
No changes from Carlo, Tom Davies had a rigorous warm up during the interval. Same pattern as the first half, much the same as the Man City game, Everton were holding on & waiting for a moment of fortune to bring them back into the game whilst somehow keeping the opposition out.
Richarlison had that chance, the ball finding him in the right side of the box, having gotten ahead of his marker, he let the ball run across his body, rather than shoot across goal he went at the near post, sadly it went wide, Richarlison looking slightly off balance as he shot. It was more than half a chance for him based on his current form.
BT Sports rap sheet of horrific coverage this season was added to by the completely awful & unnecessary Peter Walton. His assessment of Havertz’s clear & obvious handball should be the next marketing campaign used by Ultralase or Specsavers. It defied logic, it was comical at best, it was chastening conformation of the incompetence of ‘experts’ who are supposed to be able to see what happened & interpret the laws of the game in a transparent & understandable manner to viewers. I did tweet BT Sport to consider that before they next raise subscription charges, they consider relieving Mr Walton of his duties & posting that saving against any additional charges to the viewers first. Hells Bells Peter Walton, I would never, ever get in a car you’re driving.
Suffice to say VAR did what it was supposed to do & that was the last we heard from Mr Walton for the evening (I think). Davies was on now for the disappointing Iwobi, even playing out of his ‘natural’ position he was poorer than you’d expect. Then Bernard came on for a very tired looking Sigurdsson. The fresh legs of rotation were baring fruit for Chelsea, first to every second ball & the immaculate Kovacic was turning the Everton midfield around with balls over the top to Werner & Havertz.
The second goal came via a through ball that Havertz got on the end of & headed into the box, it was a stick or twist moment for Pickford. If he’d stayed on his line & Havertz had scored or squared to a team mate to score you’d have asked why Pickford hadn’t come out. He was very close to taking the ball, but it was a foul. Penalty given, Jorginho sent Pickford the wrong way. 2-0.
Chelsea would bring on Kante, Mount & Pulisic in this half, leaving the likes of Giroud, Ziyech & Thiago Silva to watch. That’s the task that was in-front of a depleted Everton in this game. Pickford making 2 more outstanding saves before the end to keep the score to a battling 2-0 in the circumstances of 3 games in 7 days, multiple injuries to key players & a bench with players so young they wouldn’t appear in preseason friendlies. FT 2-0
I watched the game with a pragmatic view of it’s a ‘free hit’ based on 9pts from our last 3 games, & if you’d offered me 9pts out of 12 from the Derby to this game, I’d have bitten your hand off. Sometimes you just have to accept that teams are better, better key players, better squad players. We know that squad issues will be addressed, but one bit of unfair criticism I read after the game was that Everton should be beating the likes of Chelsea if we want top 4. Mathematically that is correct, however you have to look at the starting point & this is where squad depth & quality see Everton at the disadvantage, even with a manager like Ancelotti & this is where patience needs to be afforded to make the right signings & squad adjustments. We will improve again this summer.
What sometimes gets forgotten by pundits & critics when they talk about the money that Everton has spent since Moshiri took over is that the clubs we are chasing had their windfalls before FFP & STCC became the handbrake to clubs looking to push on & challenge. Clubs like Chelsea & Man City had their takeovers when owners could spend what they wanted, unchecked & unregulated.
Chelsea in particular have had nearly 2 decades of investment. It’s the rules that these clubs were not hampered by & both clubs have flouted since there introduction that have stopped clubs like ours from more progressive recruitment. Along with their friends from the ‘big six 6’ & Champions League regulars, they would see this continue as long as possible. This is why Ancelotti is so key to our future, we are 1 win away from equalling last seasons points total with 11 games to go. 4pts of 4th with a game in hand.
Big game Saturday, no, it’s massive.
UTFT 💙
