Chelsea were held to a lukewarm 0-0 draw by Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon.
This was a race that underscored the reality that beauty is not the goal of competitive sport. Sean Dyche's hosts battled, bumped and bruised their visitors, fighting their way to a second goalless stalemate after Last weekend's draw with Arsenal.
Enzo Maresca's side squandered the few chances they had, squandering the chance to overtake Liverpool – however narrowly – at the Premier League summit.
How the game played out
Evertonas is their signature style regardless of placement or opponent under Dyche, relinquished the initiative. The compact mass of blue shirts managed to hinder the visitors for 25 minutes. However, a sharp strike from Moises Caicedo broke the Everton rearguard, sparking a chain reaction of numerical superiority that ended with Cole Palmer setting up Nicolas Jackson.
Chelsea's in-form forward pulled a close effort straight into the middle Jordan Pickford. Malo Gusto was unconvinced with his header in the shot.
Jackson was presented with another incredible opportunity just after the half-hour mark. Bending over to meet a corner that was curled to the back of the Everton box, the Senegal international somehow conspired to direct his effort against the post from three yards out.
Iliman Ndiaye held Everton's biggest threat, invariably keeping the ball. The curling striker parried Axel Disasi before picking out Jack Harrison at the back post. Given Goodison's freedom, Harrison had his close-range effort smothered by an incisive Robert Sanchez.
Chelsea lost their minds in the cramped dressing room during the interval. Levi Colwill lost a wrestling match with Beto in the center circle, watching from the pitch as Everton made another surge forward. A combination of Tosin Adarabioyo and Sanchez almost cleared Jesper Lindstrom's low cross as Ndiaye charged into the box, desperately keeping a clean sheet for Chelsea.
In the end, no back line would be broken.
Check out the player ratings from Everton vs Chelsea here.
“It's a windy day, it's quite cold,” Enzo Maresca wittily noted before the game. “It's beautiful, it's England.”
The swirling wind refused to let any ball stand still for a given shot. Pickford collected a stray cone that had been thrown onto the pitch in the first half as the players were forced to dodge pieces of debris strewn across the pitch during the second 45 minutes.
Some spectators argued that the conditions were worse than they forced the postponement of this month's Merseyside derby.
Unfavorable weather conditions hampered both sides. As Chelsea struggled to get to grips with the rain, Everton's first shots were at the mercy of the storm that hit Goodison Park.
As Dyche pointed out after the game: “We've been through a storm.”
Chelsea entered the weekend as the Premier League's most prolific team. However, for the first time since the opening game of the season, the Blues were kept idle by their opponents. Everton limited the west London outfit to just 0.77xG – Chelsea's lowest figure all season.
On the rare occasion when the visitors managed to fight back with the hosts, Jordan Pickford stood up. Boasting a personality that suits the wild elements on display – this is a player with 'Get the Rave On' stitched into his boots after all – Everton's enigmatic number one thrived amidst the chaos, only to be held back his puppy-like ferocity to stay. the right side of the law.
Like Pickford, Robert Sanchez has been criticized throughout his career. The divisive Spain international is often held up as a reason why Chelsea's title challenge is deeply flawed, but the goalkeeper almost single-handedly ensured the Blues came away from Sunday's contest with a share of the spoils.
New Chief Executive Marc Watts attends a Goodison match for the first time, along with interim CEO Colin Chong. 👋 pic.twitter.com/i02mEwy1iE
— Everton (@Everton) December 22, 2024
Three days in a row from the belated confirmation that the Friedkin Group had completed its takeover of Everton, new chief executive Marc Watts was watching from the stands.
Dyche hoped the new ownership would bring “a positive mood to the team”, but it would take more than a press release and a replica scarf to shift the sense of perpetual malaise that hangs over Everton these days.
The Toffees are a team of spoons in a world of pork chops; it clearly lacks any edge. While they offered more of a threat after the break, it was hardly an injustice for the game to end goalless. As Watts and his bosses will soon discover, this is nothing new for the Toffees. Four of Everton's last six games have ended 0-0.