Everton v. Chelsea: A Recap

Another weekend of Everton in action, another game of excitement, agony, and most importantly heart palpitations. Although Everton certainly did well to get a point at Stamford Bridge, Everton have to feel as though they could have taken all three points given their amazing second half display.

As a side note, I feel the penalty against TIMMAY was unjust, and will probably have something about that later this week.

Moving on to the rest of the game though, Everton were fortunate to no concede another goal or two after some fantastic shots by the Chelsea attack, specifically John Terry had a shot rattle off the woodwork during a corner and Howard was called into action a few times to bail out a very shaky defensive effort. The defense did manage to settle down in the second half thankfully, and part of this has to do with David Moyes decision to move Seamus Coleman from the right to left flank. For some reason Everton had a real inability to play the ball up unless it went through Coleman, and asking Seamus Coleman to consistently beat Ashley Cole is a lot like asking Manuel Almunia to play consistent goalkeeping. After the move Coleman did an excellent job getting up the pitch, and I feel Moyes needs to look at keeping Coleman on the left for a bit to see what will happen. This switch also allowed Leighton Baines to get forward more easily, and shows just how effective Baines is when he has a true winger in front of him rather than a creative player like Piennar who moves all around the pitch.

In the center Rodwell and Fellaini did a fairly good job of putting a stop to most of the Chelsea attacks, but their unfamiliarity with each other showed in the first half.  Rodwell really did a nice job asserting himself in the second half and was extremely unlucky not to score as one of his shots hit the post and stayed out. As always Tim Cahill was his usual self, and had a beautiful header for an assist to Beckford, and he probably feels like he could have bagged at least one goal on the day.

Of course despite a good result, the troubling points of Everton's season still showed up in this game. For one thing although the goal was a beauty, it did come in pretty much the same way that a majority of goals have this season. A beautiful Baines cross found the head of Cahill who nodded it to Beckford who put it past Cech for the equalizer. With Cahill set to leave for the Asian Cup as early as next week, but rumors suggest he may wait till the new year, Everton will be deprieved of their top goalscorer and aerial threat for a several weeks which means someone like Beckford needs to step up.

Speaking of Beckford, and I know a lot of people including myself are not sold on his ability to be a true goalscoring threat, the man has now scored 2 goals that have garnered points for Everton. Granted he still needs to do a better job of converting his many chances, but no one can say that he doesn't have the ability for this level, he just needs to learn the consistency.

MVP: Beckford, the man who scores the only goal for the team gets the credit on a team that has trouble scoring


Goat: Phil Neville, the skipper was able to return for this match, and while he did have a solid outing overall, his one screwup was costly as it led to a PENNO and then a goal from Drogba. Neville knows he screwed up badly, so at this point it is just time to forget it and move on, and next week will provide plenty of opportunities for redemption.

Next up Everton play Wigan in a game that they simply must take 3 points from. This is the point where Everton need to start beating the teams they should be, not dropping silly points. Until next time COYB!

Everton v. Chelsea : A Preview

Tomorrow at 10 a.m. on ESPN2, Everton get a chance to take on the defending champions Chelsea for the first time this season. Last years meetings between the two clubs were thrillers as Everton and Chelsea tied 3-3 at Stamford Bridge in December, and followed that up with a 2-1 win against Chelsea in which America's Balding Eagle had an assist to Louis Saha for the first goal, and followed that up with getting taken down in the box for a penalty that led to the winning goal. Although Everton last one at Stamford Bridge in 1994, the team has to look favorably on its chances to at least snatch a point in this game as Chelsea has been faltering going winless in their last 5 matches including three defeats along the way. Of course Everton's form has been less than stellar since an October that saw them go undefeated, the first of November brought fewer sights of cheer as Everton went winless, hopefully the turn of the month will allow Everton to return back to their October form which will surely be needed this weekend at Stamford Bridge.


On the player front, Everton will be without Tony Hibbert who has a deep cut on his ankle from the West Brom game last weekend, while skipper Phil Neville is a doubt with fluid in his knee. Additionally Mikel Arteta is set to begin his 3 game suspension from a sending off against West Brom. Thankfully defensive midfielder Marouane Fellaini is set to return from his suspension to bring better stability on the defensive front.

As for Chelsea, It appears that both Michael Essien and John Terry are set to return to action while Frank Lampard appears set to miss the game as he is still recovering from injury.


As always Didier Droga is one who the Everton backline will need to keep an eye. Although Drogba has not hit the back of the net in 7 games for the champions, he is always a threat to score and any chance Everton have of securing points in this game will require them to watch the Ivory Coast international very closely. Going the other way the link up of Leighton Baines and Tim Cahill will be crucial in order for Everton to get on the scoresheet, unless any of Everton's out of form strikers can manage to find the back of the net.

In the end this game will probably be close regardless, but I feel this may very well be the moment that turns Everton's season around, so I look for them to claim 3 points from this match against the champions with a 2-1 score and goals coming from Essien for Chelsea, and Cahill and Fellaini getting their names on the score sheet. Until next time COYB