26-04-2025
Live Chelsea vs Everton: Team news and latest from the Premier League
Good morning and welcome to live coverage of the Premier League match between sixth-placed Chelsea and Everton, sitting pretty in 13th after their David Moyes-inspired revival, from Stamford Bridge. It has been the unhappiest of hunting grounds for today's visitors, more of a charnel house in the 31 years since their last victory in SW6, so long ago that when Paul Rideout scored the only goal, Moyes was still a centre-half at Preston North End who were beaten 1-0 by Chesterfield that day in a fourth-tier game.
Today he sends out a side robbed by injury of James Tarkowski and with a conundrum over whether to move Jake O'Brien in from a successful run at right-back into his more natural position, or give the error-prone former England centre-half Michael Keane his full backing even though, like Idrissa Gueye, Abdoulaye Doucouré, Seamus Coleman and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he is out of contract in nine weeks. Now that Everton are safe, he has five games to plan for next season and seems to have every intention of doing so.
As for Chelsea, who have struggled for consistency and, frankly, to convince since the turn of the year, victory would take them up to fourth and they will have to try to do so without Malo Gusto, the right-back having succumbed to injury at Craven Cottage last Sunday and, though a substitute, had himself to be substituted.
To this observer, under their new ownership and most recent manager, Chelsea are struggling for identity. When Roman Abramovich owned the club we would often hear that he would like them to be more creative or play with more flair and he would drive the purchases of Deco, Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres to that end but ultimately Chelsea would be themselves and play with steely ruthlessness, forceful attacking and uber-clinical efficiency. Trying to turn then into a Juego de Posición side not only robs them of their character, it goes against the Premier League's move away from Pep-ball towards Chelsea's old dynamic qualities.
Nonetheless the owners and manager will argue that qualifying for the Champions League vindicates them in the teeth of all that criticism of Maresca's 'snoreball'. It may well do for this season, but does that make it a recipe for the type of long-term success fostered by Messrs Mourinho, Ancelotti, Conte and Tuchel?
