Live Blog

Fulltime Thoughts - The scoreline says it all really. Chelsea took their early chances, scored the goals when they were needed and cruised all the way home. They got the right efforts from the right players and the results showed. Their incredible depth was on full display today with almost a dozen starting-level players injured, meanwhile Everton might as well have sent their Under-23s to London instead and would have ended up with a better performance.

Premier League

90+3’ - Final whistle. Joint heaviest defeat of Carlo Ancelotti’s managerial career. Ouch. Also the first game of his Everton tenure to not score in.

86’ - Armando Broja is the third Chelsea teenager on the pitch today. Embarrassing this from Everton to allow that.

84’ - Now Cesar Azpilicueta tries one from distance and Pickford parries for a corner. Corner sent outside the box for a shot from distance that is muffed.

80’ - Second half sub Faustino Anjourin almost marks his Premier League debut with a goal, but Sidibe does well to block the shot.
Richarlison turns Zouma beautifully, and is hauled down, the defender gets a yellow for that.

79’ - Everton freekick, cleared, Richarlison’s shot blocked by a mass of bodies. Walcott can cross from the right, Kean charges the ball but Kepa gets to it just a second before he can touch it.

76’ - Anthony Gordon is the last sub, might as well give the youngster some minutes too. DCL goes off.

74’ - Everton passing the ball around in their own half, which Chelsea are happy to let them have. Pointless right now.
Digne swings in a good cross into the box but Kepa gets to it before any Everton player.

70’ - We have a pitch invader, and that will add more minutes to this game. Can we just have the final whistle now and give everyone twenty minutes of their lives back?

69’ - Now Barkley weaves through the Everton right and gets a shot off that Pickford saves. He’d love a goal today more than anyone else.

65’ - Everton win their first corner of the day off Zouma. Taken short and wasted, poor.

63’ - 18-year-old Billy Gilmour striding forward to try get his own goal.. why not.
The student (Lampard) has certainly outwitted his master (Ancelotti). One set of players have certainly been up for it more than the other.

60’ - Ancelotti has made a second change, taking Davies off and Moise Kean is on. What is the formation going to look like now?!
By the way Andre Gomes was booked for saying something to the ref it looks like after that fourth goal.

57’ - This is threatening to get into humiliation territory. Ball comes to Pedro about 12 yards out in the left corner and his fierce shot is saved well by Pickford. The corner comes out to Pedro who is then hauled down by Sigurdsson.
Barkley takes the freekick and it’s straight at Pickford, whew.

54’ - It gets worse. Chelsea with a short corner routine gets the ball into the box, and Olivier Giroud gets away from everyone and toe pokes past Pickford. This is a joke. 4-0 Chelsea.

51’ - The second half has been exactly the same as the first.. and there’s the third goal. Chelsea stroking the ball around easily, Willian gets it outside the box and deceives Digne , then he fires a low shot into Pickford’s far corner, no chance for the goalie at all. Summarizes this Everton effort there, with no change whatsoever at the half in mentality.

46’ - One change from Ancelotti at the break with Theo Walcott replacing Bernard. He’s banking on Sigurdsson getting better in the second half.. not a move I would make.

Halftime Thoughts - I am going to make a controversial statement here, but this first half is a total team failure, starting from Carlo Ancelotti all the way down to each of the starting XI. Clearly not the right formation to deal with Chelsea’s pace, and giving way too much room to the hosts to make things happen. You wouldn’t believe that the hosts have about a dozen players injured and this same lineup (pretty much) played midweek too. As for the players, can’t say a single one of them deserves any credit for that first 45, they’ve all been flat, lackadaisical and outright criminal in some cases.

Premier League

WhoScored

45+1’ - It’ll be just the one minute added on, and it ends with Willian driving forward and Everton losing the ball in the opposing half. Halftime, Blues down 2-0.

44’ - The Blues have not looked terrible for the last few minutes but the horse has already bolted the stable, so to speak.
Now Willian with an awful back pass right to DCL can spring a 3-on-3 break, and DCL runs around in circles and sends the ball all the way back to the centrehalves. Ugly this.

39’ - Inswinging corner from Willian is claimed well by Pickford.

36’ - Everton can’t clear their lines again and this time Giroud can fire a shot, but Pickford saves. Even when the Blues can get the ball out of their half, they are promptly turning it over as they’ve been unable to hold it in the middle.

32’ - Sidibe hauls Pedro down on the Everton right, just outside the box. Mount to take the inswinging freekick.. high and Pickford comes out to claim.

26’ - ‘Agent’ Kurt Zouma with a poor giveaway lets Richarlison through, he centers for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and he scuffs his finish wide, ooof. 2-1 there would have allowed us right back in there, argh.

22’ - Now Pedro runs away from a flat-footed Sidibe and Keane, and slots in neatly behind Pickford. 2-0. Joke football from Everton, Europe looking like a fantasy.

19’ - Willian runs away again from Digne and holds off Mason Holgate who narrows his angle, the Brazilian’s shot is low and saved well by Pickford, with Michael Keane clearing the rebound. One way traffic right now, Everton looking shell-shocked.

15’ - Simple move, simple goal, and Pickford probably up for criticism again. Pedro with a driving run, centers to Mount who turns quickly and fires into the near post from outside the box. Pickford doesn’t get near the ball, and neither do any of the Everton players, who still look fast asleep.

12’ - Despite all the talk of a depleted Chelsea side, they have dominated the opening exchanges. Everton have looked terrible with some abject passing, and have also looked very susceptible to Chelsea’s pace.

10’ - Everton’s passing has been quite horrendous early on and now a poor pass allows a counter attack that leads to another quick Chelsea counter, but mopped up well.

7’ - Willian runs away from Digne with pace and sends in a lovely low cross that an unmarked Mason Mount meets with a volley, it’s straight at Jordan Pickford and he saves well.

5’ - Sigurdsson is on the left and Bernard on the right. Tom Davies is on the left of the midfield pair, and honing in on Chelsea’s ‘energy guy’ young Billy Gilmour.

3’ - Been all Chelsea to begin the game as they’re passing it around and probing the Blues’ structure.
PS - Everton are always the Blues for me, even though they’re in their salmon get-up and the hosts are in Blue.

Starting lineups - Structurally Everton should still be the same with only like-for-like changes. Lots of fans losing their minds on Twitter about why Sigurdsson is captain - he’s next in line after Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines, and ahead of Lucas Digne.

Preview

Everton have played well, arguably better than their opponents, in their last two games and yet only have one point from six available after an away game at Arsenal, and a home clash against Manchester United.

Today they travel to Carlo Ancelotti’s former haunt at Stamford Bridge to take on fourth-placed Chelsea, with the home side struggling with a laundry list of injuries and just one win in their last six league games.

The Toffees will be missing Seamus Coleman, Morgan Schneiderlin and Jean-Philippe Gbamin with Lucas Digne expected to make a return from injury. As for tactics, expect a similar game to how the Blues played Arsenal a fortnight ago, with a quick, vertical game to stretch the hosts while cutting down their space when not in possession.

Ancelotti was much-loved during his two-year tenure a decade ago, and will be welcomed back with open arms by protege Frank Lampard who will also be looking to get a win over his former teacher.

Match Details

Competition: Premier League Matchday 29

Date and start time: Sunday, March 8th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 2:00 p.m. BST

Stadium: Stamford Bridge, London, England, United Kingdom

Capacity: 41,631

Weather: 50°F/10°C, partly cloudy, 6% chance of precipitation, 17 mph winds

How to Watch/Listen

TV: NBCSN, Telemundo - United States; Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event - United Kingdom; DAZN - Canada, beIN Sports HD 2 & 11, SuperSport 3 Africa, RMC Sport 1, Canal+ Sport 2 Afrique

Radio: evertontv, TalkSport Radio World, TalkSport Radio UK, SiriusXM FC, BBC Radio 5 Live

Live stream: NBC Sports App, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, BT Sport Live, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH

Gamethread: Live blog above starting one hour before game time

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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com

Lineups

Everton

Starting XI - Pickford, Sidibe, Keane, Holgate, Digne, Sigurdsson, Gomes, Davies, Bernard, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison

Subs - Stekelenburg, Baines, Mina, Iwobi, Walcott, Kean, Gordon

Chelsea

Starting XI - Kepa, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Zouma, Alonso, Mount, Gilmour, Barkley, Willian, Giroud, Pedro

Subs - Caballero, Christensen, Tomori, James, Broja, Anjorin, Batshuayi

Last Meeting

Everton hosted Chelsea not so long ago when Duncan Ferguson started off his caretaker stint with a 3-1 home win, running up and down the touchline all game and celebrating with ball boys.

Richarlison had gotten the Blues off to a flying start in the fifth minute, then Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the second early in the second half. Mateo Kovacic pulled one back with a shot from distance just a couple of minutes later to give the visitors hope, but DCL then sealed the win late on with his second of the day, with both his goals coming from defensive mix-ups.