Chelsea FC will welcome Everton to the hallowed turf of Stamford Bridge on Thursday in what will hopefully be a thrilling and entertaining encounter. 

Chelsea come into the match off the back of a dramatic three-goals to two win over Leeds which keeps them in touch with Manchester City who are only two points ahead of them in the title race.

Thomas Tuchel and his players will know that it is vital to win against Everton in order to keep pressure on Liverpool FC and Man City in particular because they have a game against Wolves three days later and should results go their way they could find themselves top of the table.

Meanwhile, Everton are going through a bit of a crisis. They come into the match having suffered a miserable three goals to one defeat against Crystal Palace at the weekend that finds them sitting in a dismal 14th place.

Everton will know that a win on Thursday could help get their season back on track as well as give them a confidence boost going into their match against Leicester City on Sunday afternoon.

Team News

 Tuchel has got mixed news in terms of injuries ahead of the match on Thursday. Ben Chilwell and Mateo Kovacic are likely to miss out due to injury and Covid however there is a possibility that both N'Golo Kante and Trevoh Chalobah will be available again for the match on Thursday.

Meanwhile like Tuchel Rafa Benitez has got mixed injury news. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Yerry Mina and Tom Davies and Richarlison  are all  expected to miss out on Thursday, while brazillian midfielder Allan could return following his recovery from injury.

Predicted lineups

Chelsea: Mendy, Chalobah, Rudiger, Silva, Alonso, James, Jorginho, Kante, Lukaku, Mount, Werner

Everton: Pickford, Keane, Holgate, Coleman, Godfrey, Allan, Gomes, Doucouré, Townsend, Gray, Rondon

Players to watch

Mason Mount

Chelsea have had a reasonably good season up to this point and find themselves only two points behind Man City, they have also had several big injuries notably Romelu Lukaku who missed a few matches fortunately Mason Mount has stepped up.

Mount is the joint top scorer so far this season with six goals in all competitions, he will also come into the match against Everton off the back of scoring Chelsea's first goal against Leeds United.

Andros Townsend

Arguably one of the best transfers of the summer was Everton managing to pick up Andros Townsend for free. He has looked at home in Everton colours and has played a pivitol role in their season so far including scoring some great goals.

Like Mount Townsend is the club's joint top scorer along with Demari Gray who both have five goals to their names, however Townsend has also got three assists while Gray only has two.

Townsend will be hoping that he can exploit the space behind the wing backs of Chelsea and cause them problems.

Last time out

The last time these two played was a Dominant display from Chelsea as they beat Everton by two goals to nil.

Chelsea started the match very quickly and got an early chance in the 5th minute. Timo Werner received the ball on the edge of the Everton penalty area but his shot went high and wide of the goal.

Following the fast start from Chelsea Everton eventually got their first chance of the match in the 25th minute. Luca Digne put  a dangerous ball into the box however Clavert-Lewin put his header wide of the post.

The in the 31st minute the deadlock was broken. Marcos Alonso dribbled with the ball down the left hand side of the pitch before whipping in a cross to Kai Havertz who's shot richoched off Ben Godfrey into the Everton goal.

Following the goal neither team could create any clear cut chances and as a result Chelsea went into half time with a one goal lead.

Everton started the second half much better than first and got their first opportunity in the 57th minute. Richarlison received the ball from Gylfi Sigurdsson in the Chelsea penalty box however his shot was not on target. 

Then in the 64th minute Chelsea won a penalty following a foul on Havertz in the Everton penalty area. Jorginho stepped up and comfortably dispatched the penalty into the bottom right hand corner to give Chelsea all three points.

How to watch

Fans in the UK will be able to watch the match from 19:00pm  on BT Sport with kick off scheduled for 19:45pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VAVEL Logo
About the author