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A last-gasp winner from captain John Terry saw Chelsea through as the Premier League leaders grabbed 3 points. Having toiled for the entire game trying to break down the Everton back-four, it took the Blues a free-kick from Lampard, a faint touch from Terry and a titchy error from Tim Howard who had an outstanding game, to edge Everton out in injury time and remain atop of the table.
The Toffees had come to the Stamford Bridge to try and be the first team ever to beat Jose Mourinho’s men at the Bridge in a Premier League game. Everton are 6th in the Premier League, 8 points away from the Champions League play-off spot and a win for Manchester United against Crystal Palace later on during the day would mean Everton & Manchester United would swap positions, pushing the Toffees down to 7th. On the other hand, the Blues were determined to walk out with 3 points as they had failed to pick up a single point in the reverse fixture, where Naismith’s header was the only goal of the match to hand the Toffees the win.
LINE UPS:
Jose Mourinho opted to go for his standard 4-2-3-1 with Terry, Oscar & Lampard coming in for John Obi Mikel, David Luiz & Ramires. Both Ramires & Obi Mikel did not have a great outing against Manchester City in the FA Cup tie. David Luiz missed the clash against Everton owing to a muscular injury and was directly replaced by their captain who had just made his comeback after a 3 match absence.
Roberto Martinez initially, had planned to make only a couple of changes from the lineup that he fielded against Swansea in the FA Cup tie with Osman coming in for Ross Barkley in the No.10 position and Tim Howard on goal in place of Joel Robles. However, a last minute injury blow to on-loan striker Lacina Traore who scored on his debut against Swansea, forced Martinez to make another change and Naismith took his place.
FIRST HALF:
The early minutes of the match saw Chelsea attacking and testing the back-four of the Toffees and the Blues were looking to unsettle their opponents with their pace & counter-attacking style of football. And the target man to form the crux of the attack was none other than Eden Hazard who has been in blistering form. Chelsea looked dangerous in the early moments and looked like a good start for the Blues but once the Toffees were able to see off those high-tempo moments thanks to Phil Jagielka, Sylvain Distin & Gareth Barry, they seemed the more threatening side for a while then.
Leon Osman’s shot which would have seen the net 8 out of times, was saved magnificently by Cech. Since then, Everton held the ball better than the Blues for quite a while. The Toffees did not create as many opportunities as the Blues to go for goal, but the build play involving Pienaar with Baines running down to offer offensive help, Naismith who didn’t seem much of a goal threat but making the right runs, picking out the right passes, made things look promising for Everton.
However, the Blues had more shots on goal but only one significant chance which was taken by Eto’o, didn’t find the back of the net owing to a classy save from Howard. Oscar struggled constantly trying to get past Barry & McCarthy and was pocketed in the final third and it was an exhibition of defense from both Everton & Chelsea as the 4 center-backs looked sharp & raring to go from minute 1. The first half ended a stale mate with 0-0 , promising to be a cracker in the second.
SECOND HALF:
Mourinho reacted quickly to the proceedings of the first half by making his first change of the game, removing Oscar who looked off-colour to bring in Ramires. One could imagine it was a move to add more of strength and physical presence in the center of the park. The move did justice to him as Ramires provided the energy & stability which the Blues missed during the first half. The fact that Chelsea gained control over the game since then, looked evident as the Blues were testing Howard more often than the first half and Howard’s response to the Blues were in the form of top saves which at one point left Chelsea clueless.
The highlight of his performance was the double save that he made of a venomous left-footed shot from Hazard which was taken on the rebound and struck from close range by Ivanovic. His performance was supplemented by Jagielka, Distin & Barry. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the Toffees did not deserve to lose owing to a laudable defensive display. Fernando Torres was brought in, but Willian was removed and the Blues played both their No.9′s for a period of 7 minutes before Eto’o who didn’t have a great outing was taken off.
Both Ross Barkley & Schurrle came on as substitutes and did not look significant, while on-loan forward Deulofeu did not see much of the ball.Jagielka took Ramires down with what can be called as more than just a contact led to the free-kick. The free-kick was taken by Lampard. John Terry went for glory, and it is believed that there was a faint touch from him which probably distracted the in-form Howard who spilled the ball which rolled passed the line.
Chelsea remain atop of the table, ahead of Arsenal. Manchester City are 3 points behind the Premier League leaders but with a game in hand and a superior goal difference. Everton will be looking to bounce back when they play West Ham at home before they face Arsenal in the FA Cup. However, the race for the title looks closer than ever and we are sure to have an entertaining end to this year’s premier league campaign.
