Chelsea 0-0 Everton - Sunday 11th November, 2018

[Stan]

Is the scoreline reflective of the nature of the match? i.e was it a boring 0-0 draw or not? 

[RandoEFC+]

35 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Alonso wasnt a red. Jorginho debatable 

Alonso completely accidental, an unlucky collision, whether the referee saw it or just showed some common sense it was a yellow max. Jorginho could have been a red based on recent (wrong) decisions but in reality a yellow was the right call. Too many straight reds these days, its a farce having all the half time analysis centre around whether Mina, Jorginho and Alonso should all have had red cards in the first half alone. 

4 minutes ago, Stan said:

Is the scoreline reflective of the nature of the match? i.e was it a boring 0-0 draw or not? 

Wasn't too boring but there weren't a huge amount of chances either.

[carefreeluke]

 

4 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

That's a good result, well done lads. Chelsea weren't at their best today but their team is better than ours in every position with a few that are up for debate and they still could easily have won. Alonso and Willian were inches away and Hazard could have tucked that outside of right foot finish away on another day. Just brings home how hard it is to end this mad run of not winning away at the top six.

Very resilient and organised performance from us. I'm sure if we had Mourinho or Moyes as manager everyone would be calling it cowardly and small time but that's the football hive mind for you. Because we have a Portuguese manager and Brazilian players everyone will say we "had a go" because we ventured into their half half a dozen times.

I'm happy though, can't complain at that.

Far from cowardly in my eyes mate and I'd be the first to comment on it if it was, that wasn't negative at all from you lot, best coached Everton team I've seen come here in years. You had some chances to win the game as well. Manager who had clearly done his homework and who also adapted extremely well when his side come under the cosh in the second half. You played with a middle block and made the game concentrated in certain areas, we were forced sideways a lot and lacked any vertical passing. I thought Hazard played well today but we couldn't get him on the ball regularly enough which was down to your tactics. Everything was well prepared from your point of view and this is the first home game (maybe this season) where I wasn't quietly believing / thinking that we were going to go on and win the game. We gave away a lot of free kicks and were forced to make longer passes in an attempt to open up the game, most of which were forced due to a lack of ideas and options. This highlighted our frustration and desperation at times.

[carefreeluke]

As for us, I saw what Sarri said after the game. Very slow on the ball for the first 30 minutes, this again originates from the centre backs. We started to move the ball quicker and play with a bit more intensity as the first half went on and hence found some space because of this. Second half we had a decent period of playing with good intensity and where we had Everton on the ropes and maybe on another day we would of scored but I feel because of a number of factors, our changes, Marco Silva's adjustments and a lot of our players being a bit below their usual standards, we couldn't maintain that period (like we normally do) and go on and win the game.

Some other random points:

• Not sure why Willian keeps starting as Pedro would have been useful today with his movement and his runs in behind particularly with Everton defending higher than most teams do when they come here. 
• Morata moaning again.
• Our full backs aren't good enough.
• Our squad needs that injection of quality in a number of positions to take it to another level, full back, attacking player for the right hand side to complement Hazard, and we're still working out the third midfield position.
• Everton were very good but we didn't help ourselves with a lack of tempo.
• Our right hand side in attack is pretty tragic to watch at times, Azpi, Kanté and Willian. Taking away the fact that Willian performs well about one game in eight, I feel his more at home playing on the left hand side anyway with that typical cutting inside he does from that side.

[Stan]

Just seen this clip. 

Not seen many other match highlights for the weekend but Morgan got booked for clearly getting the ball yet Jorginho escapes a red card for a dirty and reckless tackle like this

That is a shameful decision not to show him red there. Totally misses the ball, in from the side/back, both feet off the ground, 'out of control'. By the letter of the law that should be a red. 

[True Blue]

Jorginho should have seen red, no idea why he went like this. So far i didn't really notice him making dirty challenges or in general being a dirty player. 

On the game:

In the first half apart from one shot on target by Alonso we were very well closed and Everton defended well. In the second we created enough to score i feel, had a few excellent chances and hit the post. After 80+ we wasted too many good attacks and we only got a draw. Overall i feel we deserved better, then again you don't score and you don't win. People complaining about us taking a draw home, when Sarri arrived i felt we would struggle a lot. We already look much better than under Conte from last season. With time we will improve and get better, i expected a max top 4 finish this season and we are just 4 points of the top.

Can't be nothing but pleased.

[Mel81x+]

2 hours ago, Stan said:

Just seen this clip. 

Not seen many other match highlights for the weekend but Morgan got booked for clearly getting the ball yet Jorginho escapes a red card for a dirty and reckless tackle like this

That is a shameful decision not to show him red there. Totally misses the ball, in from the side/back, both feet off the ground, 'out of control'. By the letter of the law that should be a red. 

If you look at the highlights from our game as well Chambers gets away with a foot on tackle as well and I was thinking he should have ended up with a red card as well. Some weird officiating all over the weekend.

[Dave]

Jesus. On another day Jorginho, Mina and Bernard could all have been off. 

Everton should be far happier than Chelsea. Far too many times last season they just rolled over to bigger clubs. Yesterday there was organisation and fight.

This whole talk about being undefeated is all pretty pointless for Chelsea If they draw games like this given how lethal Man City are. As others have previously said, they need to be quicker on the ball if they're to match the standard set by City and Liverpool.

[carefreeluke]

Example of Everton's mid block and shows there's different ways to defend. Forces us wide and stops and crowds out our typical passing areas and patterns. If you don't move the ball quickly enough you're going to have a lot of trouble breaking that down.

[RandoEFC+]

Still don't think any of them were reds though that different angle of Jorginhos tackle is perhaps changing my mind a bit on that one.

Didn't see enough replays of Bernard to see if he actually really stuck his head in which is silly, but it's only silly because the rules are so retarded now that you can go up to someone, pretend you're going to square up to them then throw yourself on the ground as soon as your foreheads touch and the other guy will get sent off while you get no punishment. Bernard getting a red would go down as violent conduct. I'm not saying he should get away with things for being a short arse but he's hardly going to hurt a bloke like Rudiger by tickling his chin with the top of his hair.

Mina one isn't even a foul let alone a red. He won the ball and there was contact afterwards. Literally any sliding tackle has the potential to result in a collision like that in the follow through based 90% on luck and circumstance and 10% on the technique and aggression of the tackler. If that "could have been a red" then they may as well come out and say any sliding tackle is now a red card offence because by definition, any sliding tackle leaves the tackler less than 100% in control and depending on whether the player being tackled leaves his foot in, jumps over the tackle, or is going too fast to take avoiding action, then there is a chance of a collision resulting in a minor or major injury after the ball is gone.

The only ones that should be red cards are the ones that are shockingly late, nasty two footers, or several inches off the ground. Another one that does my head in these days is snowflakes saying a player has gone "over the ball" because his foot is 4mm off the ground when in reality he's not even made it up to the middle of the ball.

God it pisses me off how soft football has become.

Anyway...

54 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

Example of Everton's mid block and shows there's different ways to defend. Forces us wide and stops and crowds out our typical passing areas and patterns. If you don't move the ball quickly enough you're going to have a lot of trouble breaking that down.

Yes our pressing was different yesterday, noticeably. We were less intense further up the pitch, not often did we flood your half with players putting pressure on Chelsea's defenders as they played the ball out. There was a very clear game plan to keep the shape and only press when there was a realistic chance of nicking the ball and creating a chance. We haven't really played like that before this season, even at United at Arsenal where we did adapt our tactics but didn't get it quite right.

I called Silva the next Roberto Martinez at least once over the summer. This is the biggest sign yet that I was wrong because you simply would never see a Martinez team set up like that, but at the same time in most matches we play exciting football and threaten to score numerous times. So far so good from the new regime.