Everton vs Chelsea: Q&A with We Ain't Got No History

Jose Mourinho. What’s he going to bring to the club this time?

Coherent tactics is the big part, but Mourinho's also a superb man-manager. Chelsea weren't exactly a squad high on confidence last season, and getting that aura back is probably Mourinho's biggest task. Of course, much of said aura comes from the winning of football matches, so it's fortunate that he's not so bad at that either.

How was the summer transfer market for you?

It was good enough, although there were some mis-steps. Adding Kevin de Bruyne, Andre Schurrle and Willian (although the latter strikes me as far too expensive for what he brings) to the attacking midfield mix gives Chelsea even more options than they had last season, and I really like the signing of young midfielder Marco van Ginkel.

What are the expectations at Chelsea for this season?

I'm not sure what the expectations internally might be, but my hope is that they stop under-performing! Chelsea's talent and spending puts them securely in the class of the two Manchester sides, but despite some European success over the past two seasons the Blues simply haven't been competitive with United or City. The first step is to start playing with the league's big boys again. Then we'll see. Oh, and we should probably try to win a cup or something this season as well.

Chelsea have too many attacking midfielders and not enough strikers. Discuss.

It's hard to say just how bad the striker problem is, since not being an avid watcher of the Russian Premier League I don't really know how good Samuel Eto'o is at the moment. As for the midfielders, I don't think it's possible to have too many good players at one position, so I'm not going to sweat it.

We've had good things from young Ross Barkley in the first three games, are there any younger players in danger of breaking through this season for Chelsea? Or anyone out on loan we should keep an eye out for?

On loan, the obvious candidate is Thibaut Courtois, who's easily the best keeper in Spain at the moment. Chelsea also have a fascinating corps of young midfielders coming up. Nathaniel Chalobah is the headliner, butRuben Loftus-Cheek, Lewis Baker and Josh McEachran are all excellent prospects. And I hear we sent a pretty decent Belgian striker your way?

Talking of which, how do you feel about Romelu Lukaku being loaned out again this year? Are you happy he's at Everton?

I'd rather he have stayed with the team, but he's good enough to be Everton's first-choice centre forward, so this move is probably good for his development. His best seasons are to come, and with Everton he can work on his touch and finishing in a less cut-throat environment than the Chelsea first team. So, it's a positive, although I'll miss him this season.

Finally, most Chelsea – Everton games are quite tight, what do you make of Everton for this season?

Still finding their feet. Roberto Martinez tends to take a while to figure out what he wants to do with his sides, and the fact that the transfer window's been open this whole time has meant that the Everton who've played the first three games of the season aren't the real deal anyway. It'll be a little while before the squad settles down, but that's do be expected.

More from Royal Blue Mersey:

• Get To Know: Romelu Lukaku
• Everton's leadership deserves credit, now they need to prove Monday wasn't a fluke
• Get To Know: Gareth Barry
• Get To Know: James McCarthy
• Reviewing Everton's Transfer Window
• James McCarthy says Everton move was ‘no brainer’
• Gareth Barry says Roberto Martinez was key in Everton move
• Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines - Replaceable vs. Irreplaceable
• Everton signs Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea