Everton picked up a fantastic point at home to Chelsea last night, though they probably should have won the game. It looked a certain away-win with Chelsea having won all their away games this season and Everton having the solitary victory over Fulham thanks to Louis Saha’s last gasp header.

Team news was worse than against Man City, not only did the Blues not have any strikers fit but Segundo Castillo had picked up an injury meaning Phil Neville moved into midfield and Tony Hibbert deputised at Right-Back.

TEAMS:

Everton (4-4-1-1):

Howard

Hibbert  Jagielka  Yobo  Lescott

Osman  Neville  Arteta  Pienaar

Fellaini

Cahill

Chelsea: (4-3-3)

Cech

Bosingwa  Terry  Alex  A Cole

Lampard  Mikel  Ballack

Deco  Anelka  J Cole

The game started quite well for Everton with chances for the prolific Phil Neville plus Cahill and Fellaini. Chelsea then started to dominate the game and had a 10 minute spell where Everton were hanging on. Ashley Cole, who was getting forward a lot, went close and the quiet Niclas Anelka hitting the post before realising he was offside. Then the game changed in Everton’s favour: John Terry lunged at Leon Osman with his foot off the ground and, despite touching the ball, made contact with the Everton winger. Referee Phil Dowd paused and appeared to ask the fourth official before brandishing the red card to the England and Chelsea skipper. Chelsea and Scolari were furious but replays show Dowd was correct in his decision. This rattled Chelsea who lost their heads for the remaining 10 minutes of the half. Chelsea conceded a free kick on the edge of the area and a seething Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole both got booked for dissent. Everton probed but couldn’t find a way through and it was 0-0 at the break.

JT gets his marching orders

For the second half Chelsea decided to withdraw top goalscorer Niclas Anelka and replace him Didier Drogba, who had scored in each of his previous 4 appearances against the Blues. Joe Cole made way for Serbian misfit Branislav Ivanovic to fill the void left by John Terry.  Everton pressed long and hard for a winner in the second half with Tony Hibbert putting an uncharacteristicly good cross in for Marouaine Fellaini who could only head straight at Cech. Jospeh Yobo had to come off just after the hour mark through injury and he was replaced by Leighton Baines who played at Left-Back with Joleon Lescott moving to his preferred Centre-Back position. Everton wasted corner after corner whilst Tony Hibbert went close to his first ever goal with a deflected shot. Everton’s best chance of the night fell to Marouane Fellaini who connected with Leighton Baines’s low cross but the ball went agonisingly wide. Then on 83 minutes, Everton thought they’d won it, the ball fell in the box to Steven Pienaar who bundled the ball home to spark jubilation in the Gwladys Street, only to find the goal had been disallowed by the referees assistant. The decision was correct as Pienaar was offside and Cech had two hands on the ball when it was forced over the line.

1-0 to the Blues?

All in all a good point for the Blues but I don’t think there’ll be many better opportunities to beat Chelsea. Final Score: Everton 0 Chelsea 0

Written by Ian Phillips

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