Everton V Chelsea
Saturday 14 September, 2013 – 17:30 GMT Kick-Off
LIVE on Sky Sports 1
Preview
Just three teams are left searching for their first league win of the new season, with one of those being an Everton side which has displayed a great deal of enterprise as well as promise in their opening three matches without reaping their just rewards. Perhaps that will change on Saturday, when Roberto Martinez and his attack-minded charges welcome Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea to Merseyside for the tea-time clash at Goodison Park.
Then again, perhaps not. The bookmakers seem to think Chelsea are primed for their third Premier League victory of the campaign and make them 11/8 favourites (BetVictor), with Everton a 5/2 (Ladbrokes) shot to upset the odds. The draw, meanwhile, is widely available at 12/5 although there hasn’t been a stalemate in this fixture for the past four seasons.
Goodison Park a fixture fortress
It’s one of the oldest, most iconic grounds in the Premier League and for Everton, in this precise fixture at least, it has served as a fortress. Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Goodison Park last season – mirroring the same scoreline they managed in the reverse encounter in London – was their first victory away from home over the Toffees in the Premier League for almost five years. In fact, between the 2009/10 and 2011/12 seasons, Chelsea fell to three successive league defeats on Merseyside.
So if recent history counts for anything, this will be anything but straightforward for the travelling side. They are, though, the in-form side of the two – while they’ve not exactly excelled in the early stages of Jose Mourinho’s second tenure in charge, seven points from a possible nine is a more than respectable tally. Throw in an extremely harsh and agonising defeat to Bayern Munich on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup and the West Londoners bring with them some very solid form into an historically problematic fixture.
By contrast, Everton find themselves languishing in the lower reaches of the league following a succession of draws. They do remain unbeaten, though, having kept two clean sheets and conceded just two goals, plus they’re a team of strong characters. Despite a string of missed chances in each of their first three matches, some of them glorious, as well as several very good claims for penalties, Roberto Martinez’s men have shown an enormous amount of endeavour in their search for the missing goals that have, so far, cost them elusive victories and left them ruing underwhelming draws.
The acquisition of Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea on a season-long loan should remedy their goalscoring issues, but in the short term – with the powerful Belgian forward unable to face his parent club at the weekend – the Toffees will need to persevere with their current formula of creating chances aplenty and simply hoping that something sticks for a change. It’s not a sure-fire plan, but it is all they can do at the minute while their forwards continue to misfire.
Bank on Everton’s perseverance and Chelsea’s quality to produce goals
It’s a risky game banking on Everton eventually converting the plethora of opportunities they do manage to create into goals, but having watched the likes of Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman excel from full-back, along with Steven Pienaar and Kevin Mirallas wreaking havoc from the wings, I’m sticking with the assessment I made prior to Everton’s goalless draw away to Cardiff (a game they created enough chances to win and even had one or two big claims for penalties) that sooner rather than later the Everton chief creators will see their efforts in attack rewarded with goals.
No team has had more goal attempts than Everton, who have had twice as many than a Chelsea side who have plundered double the number of goals the Merseysiders have. It’s proof that acquiring some of the best attackers in the game for a princely price does pay dividends, as Chelsea have been far more clinical in the early stages. However, Chelsea have enjoyed their fair share of good fortune this season whereas Everton have had very little rub of the green.
For me, a Chelsea defence that has also kept two clean sheets from their opening three fixtures hasn’t truly been tested. Which is surprising for a team that, for some reason, do allow the opposition enough of the ball – and that, for me, is a dangerous ploy against sides who know how to utilise it to good effect. Everton certainly do, clearly. Converting that into goals, less so. So a tentative vote has to go Chelsea’s way, for the simple reason that they boast a greater goal-potential in attack – but I do believe Everton will push them.
You’d back Chelsea’s star-studded offence to score in most games this season, and that is no different on Saturday. Everton were rarely troubled in their previous two league fixtures, in goalless draws at home to West Brom and away to Cardiff, but will have their work cut out containing the like of Frank Lampard, Juan Mata (who should start for once with Oscar racking up the air miles with Brazil), Eden Hazard and one of either Fernando Torres or Samuel Eto.
However Everton, if they continue in the same creative vein which has seen them carve out so many gilt-edged chances already this season, should comply themselves. Nikica Jelavic could be in the last chance saloon following the arrival of Lukaku, so the Croatian – without a goal, either for club or country, in his previous 14 appearances – should, in principle, have a point to prove; while Kevin Mirallas returns from international duty in confident mood after his sublime strike for Belgium against Scotland.
It’s 4/5 both teams notch in the tea-time kick-off and I really fancy the prospects of such a bet.
Recommended Bet: Both Teams to Score @ 4/5, Bet365
