Chelsea vs Everton

Looking forward to this one – sooner or later we are going to enjoy an away day both inside and outside the pub!

I was there once when we won, first game of the 78-79 season. 1-0 if my memory is correct, Andy King. Spent most of the game repelling invaders of a Chelsea persuasion as they tried to pile in the open end. After the game, on the King's Road and then the tube station battle. Quite a day in London town that was.

Ancelotti's Blues to get something tomorrow. 1-1 or more preferably 2-1.

Both teams are scoring and leaking goals, if I place a bet on the above it will be 0-0 so I'll keep my money in my pocket!

Jeez, I wish I could have dreams like that. I have to put up with a recurring one involving Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Anniston, and neither of 'em play for us in it!

I'd leave Holgate at centre back and pair him with, after another two seconds of thought, Mina to see if he can start getting his act together.

It won't happen but I'd play both Digne and Baines, with one of them going into midfield alongside Davies and Gomes, with Delph on the bench, ready to come on.

Sidibe is simply a fish out of water at right-back. I would play Davies there but, if Digne is fit, I would switch Baines to the right.

With Sigurdsson forced into the team, it is a square peg into a round hole. As a result, I think Cheslea will get too much of the ball in midfield and it will be like the first half against Man Utd last week.

I can see Carlo out-thinking Lampard for this game and we will get the win.

Prediction: Chelsea 1 Everton 3

Ancelotti and Lampard are the Blues Brothers who bonded at Chelsea over respect, trophies and a goodbye meal after the Italian was sacked... but now their friendship is an afterthought as they go head-to-head as managersl

So, 26 years eh, Lyndon? That's embarrassing. That said, with a fair wind and a bit of luck, they are beatable, but we need to show desire from the "off". I would like us to go 4-4-2 with Kean up front with Calvert-Lewin but I think Carlo might go with a 4-5-1 set-up to stifle midfield.

In Carlo's early games, we played a strange hybrid of 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 depending on whether we were in possession or not. This would suit a right side of Holgate and Sidibé together.

It highlights just how cute and astute a manager we have in Carlo Ancelotti. He looked at what was available to him, tweaked the formation which resulted in Lampard returning his best ever goal haul – 27, for a midfielder! – and a league and cup double.

Well worth a read.

My starting XI and subs bench:

Pickford
Sidibé Keane Holgate Digne
Davies Delph Gomes Bernard
Richarlison Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Virginia, Mina, Baines, Sigurdsson, Iwobi, Walcott, Kean.

However, the mental side remains an issue, hopefully eradicated over the summer; I don't see us winning tomorrow.

Usually in these types of away matches, we beat ourselves by throwing stupid goals away. You can't expect to win big games doing that – no matter what personnel is on the turf.

And second of all, mentally, can our players get over a hurdle of not beating Chelsea away since what seems like ancient times ago when greyhounds used to run around the Stamford Bridge pitch and Dennis Wise scuttled around in a Chelsea shirt like a petulant schoolyard wind-up merchant???

The mental hurdle of winning one of these matches is now so huge, it would take a mile-long pole vault to jump over.

I'm not sure over the 90 mins last week that Davies did enough to cement his place, nor Sigurdsson, and clearly Bernard is not favoured away in big matches, so I reckon he'll only make 2 or 3 changes to last week's line-up. I suspect we'll see:

Pickford
Sidibé, Keane, Holgate, Digne,
Walcott, Gomes, Delph, Iwobi,
Richarlison, Calvert- Lewin.

I can't see us not conceding again so I'll go for a 1-1 scoreline and, if luck is on our side, a sneaky 1-2 win.

Which means I should have a bet on Chelsea.

Which means we will win

Arrrgggggg!

I hope Everton hasve secured Mason Holgate on an extended contract to continue playing him in his default position: centre-back.

Yes, he has had spells at both full-back positions, a single appearance away to Man Utd as a defensive midfielder under Big Dunc due to an injury crisis, and was placed there again away to Watford for the final 20 minutes in a tactical reshuffle forced on Carlo following Delph's sending-off.

I don't understand the calls to give him a starting berth in midfield. We have players who can do that job. Play Mason in his best position.

I think any selection including Bernard away is also likely to be wrong. On the Brazilian ESPN site, there was an article on the wee man in which Carlo was quoted with the following:

"I know my players very well, I know their qualities and also their defects. Perhaps because, at home, we are more able to control the ball, Bernard is really good with the ball and did his part very well against Crystal Palace when he scored the first goal.

"When we are not able to dominate the game, it is more difficult for him to prove his quality. When we have control, everything is easier for him. Maybe for that reason I play him at home, but not away.

"He doesn't have to convince me, I already know that he is a good player and important for us."

Don't move Holgate.

Our deficiencies in midfield are obvious but don't move our best centre-half. All that does is weaken an already suspect part of our team even further.

Sorry for repeating what others have said but, similar to the Arsenal game a few weeks back, our biggest problem is ourselves.

We should be fresher than them tomorrow but I still don't think we'll win. Score draw for me, possibly 2-2 but I'd love to be wrong.

Onward Evertonians. Full support. 💙

It's okay talking players up and saying "We are heading in the right direction" but it's another season of no real change so far, and I think what we as fans need, and what Ancelotti needs, is a really big result against one of the top sides.

We need to start putting some of the talk on the pitch and start producing better results. After the derby, we then face a long three week break off due to Norwich being in the FA Cup quarterfinals.

If we go into April rooted in the bottom 7, then it's not going to be very positive feeling.

One day, we might once again be challenging at the top but we all knew before Christmas it probably wouldn't be this current season.

Life is short but it's even shorter if you dwell on what it should be, rather than what it is.

I'm enjoying watching a similar matchup right now, Arteta vs. Moyes. These meetings of old friends are always interesting.

And a correct VAR decision probably decides the outcome. Who woulda thunk it.

I think this season quickly needs to move from one where we are not in the running for Europe, but also completely safe. Then give game time to Gordon, Kean, more time to Iwobi, Bernard and mess about with different other midfield combinations.

All about getting a better feel for who and what for next season. But, if we beat Chelsea and Liverpool, then things might change!

I really hope we don't lose Richarlison, either in the short term to the Olympics or the long term to a "bigger" club, and we pick up some reinforcements in midfield and defence.

I hope we win tomorrow, and we're more than capable of it based on recent displays, but I've seen enough now to get excited about next season – whatever happens during the remainder of this season.

We won't make top 7 and don't deserve it. 10 teams have lost fewer games than us, 8 teams have scored more, 11 teams have conceded fewer. We had a nice little boost under Dunc and Carlo has been steady but, over the course of the season, the team doesn't deserve Europe.

I see plenty of chances, and we must stop Pedro and Ross from shooting and close the space in midfield.

For me, it's vital to win in order to have an outside chance of Europa League qualification. Considering the Arsenal and Man Utd games, both were decided on fine margins and United by rank poxy officials and VAR.

Tomorrow, Everton will get even. Chelsea, like ourselves, are predictable but now Everton have so much more about them under Carlo.

A win but I see us getting a few chances and converting so 1-3 to Everton and keep the hopes going for Liverpool next week.

I hope I am wrong but, as soon as Europe is mentioned, this team just crumbles under the slightest pressure of expectation. I expect the same thing tomorrow – us losing many times to them in the past is no excuse. Stay tight and take your chances and bring home three points, please, Everton.

It's in our hands tomorrow and it's in our minds.

Surely we're due a win there. The last time was '95 with Rideout scoring. I'm also hoping Pickford redeems himself this week: no clean sheet for ages.

You look at teams that are limited in playing terms, like Burnley, they can regularly keep clean sheets and put all hands to the pump when they come under pressure.

Every team will come under some pressure during a match; it's how you deal with it, and Everton for far too long have been a real soft touch defensively. (I speak defensively but that's as a whole team when possession is relinquished.)

This will be a big task for Carlo Ancelotti over the coming months because you've almost got to go back to the Moyes era of Distin and Jagielka when this club had the art of defending.

What I would like to ask is what has Leighton Baines done wrong in the two games he has played, to warrant Digne a sure starter at left-back?

Take away his penalty miss in the cup game and I would say, on the games this season, Baines has been the better left-back.

We know Digne on his day is quality... but, for me, I would certainly give Baines another run out; I think the guy has earned it.

It really is pitiful that Sheffield United, who were a Championship team last season, have a well better defence – with the same players from the Championship.

I was just talking about Ancelotti's comments about Europe. With the comment "we don't deserve it", if we finish in the top 7, then we deserve it. What we don't deserve is some of the referees' decisions and VAR that as lost us games and points.

The Premier League is so unpredictable that 3 wins may get you to 5th, or 3 losses may put you back into relegation. My opinion is we will finish 8th to 10th but I will be a lot happier if we finish 7th to 5th.

Players like Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Walcott, Keane, Pickford, Coleman, Baines (although I've liked These full backs), Niasse, Bolasie and Sandro have never had what it takes to win big. That's most of our senior players.

The young guys have won at junior level, with Everton and some with England. However, I worry that the senior players' loser mentality will invade the youngsters' minds...

In my opinion, it's a problem starting with Moyes's plucky Blues, which was actively encouraged by the Bestest Evertonian ever!

Solution? I don't think we buy ‘winners' on a downward trajectory. We buy up-and-coming, hungry-as-fuck players and we offer them a platform to play with our other quality young players.

We have the winner as a manager but, until he can escape the senior serial losers in the squad, we'll always get to the cusp of doing something then fall on our own swords.

In another few seasons, we will have lost the lot: Coleman, Baines and Jagielka. Three players who have given everything they had for the club.

Sadly time caught up with Coleman through a horrible injury, and Jagielka; Baines for me still has a season or so left in the tank. So, although I get where you are coming from, Winston, I could not include those three players as bottlers.

However, the main reason I included them is they are from the Moyes era, and in the recent past, when we've needed to win and haven't, they were there.

I agree, they gave it everything, it's just never been enough... when it mattered.

The quality of the Championship is not significantly below that of the Premier League below the rich 4 or 5. Sheffield Utd are doing well because they play a limited but well-organised game with all players knowing their roles and they're well coached to do this.

Chances are they'll go down in a couple of years because they don't have the resources to maintain and improve on this. Our aims are massively above theirs; they will fail if they get relegated again, we'll fail if we don't get into the Champions League positions.

Brian @46, He's done nothing but good and is one of the best servants the club has ever had. We're not weakened by his presence but, out of respect to him, Digne must take the load off him now and let him have his wonderful cameos only when needed.

I'm a fan of the Championship. It's just that all our defenders are internationals and we've got England's Number 1 and sometimes the lapses in concentration and stupid mistakes we make are unbelievable.

Sheffield Utd are well drilled and used to playing with each other. I just find it hard to believe that thier defending puts ours to shame.

2-1 Blues. Race for 4th-5th-6th will need a shoehorn.

Right, hear me out: I do not hold Carlo in any way responsible, because there is no-one in the first team squad that he has been signed by him. Basically he has inherited a squad, some bad, some good, and some downright ugly!

With all due deference to Carlo, he recognises (I think and hope so anyway) that there is a nucleus of decent players, but because of previous incumbents, he is also lumbered with much deadwood.

As they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day", but we are led to believe these sayings were built on true accounts!

Carlo knows the score and will have a plan to take Chelsea out. We can't afford a defeat, simple as, but we deserve and have earned some luck the past few weeks, with the rank officials and our own rank basic mistakes.

Tomorrow, it's got to be ruthless and clinical, and it can be done. But no fuck-ups self-inflicted by the team.

I am with Dave Abrahams, given the paucity of our midfield options I would consider putting Bainesy in there.

The rest of the team picks itself except I would leave Keane (lack of concentration) on the bench and play Mina alongside Holgate.

It will be a tough game but we are due some luck and they are not in great shape at the moment.

We win, we're on 40 points.

We win, we're only 5 points back from 4th place.

Tomorrow defines whether we can indeed go to Europe, or if another year of a Floridian not being able to play hooky from work mid-week afternoons is the norm.

If we win, it's on. We lose, it's next season.

For me, Sigurdsson has to bow out. I like Sigi, I don't want to keep knocking him, but he has been so poor this season, he has to go in the summer (Brands's most difficult task) but we simply can't pick him anymore.

My team: Pickford, Sidibé, Mina, Holgate, Digne, Walcott, Davies, Gomes, Bernard, Calvert-Lewi, Richarlison.

Stay in the game, slowly win the battle, and then go for the jugular, against the most hot-&-cold team in the league, who are down to the bare bones, which surely means we couldn't have picked a better time to play them.

Posting this now, I am gutted I'm not going, but hope that everyone who does go, gets one of those special days on the road and the train. Go and fight, Everton, go and win the game!

Or possibly even Schneiderlin in there along with Davies and Gomes and move to something closer to a 4-3-3?

Hopefully midfield won't be such a dreary prospect next season.

Bernard has certainly been patchy away from home but I think he has been a real bright spark for us generally lately, even some of his substitute appearances in away matches.

Schneiderlin is out for 2 months isn't he? I agree, though, our midfield selection doesn't draw inspiration really, does it? I have long felt this season that our defence's woes are actually midfield woes and a couple of quality additions will solve both areas next season. COYB.

Great game coming up again and these days the difference is we can compete, that is gold dust compared to recent times. I think we will all be frustrated again with Chelsea just having too much for us at Stampford Bridge.

Thank you for the Ancelotti incite on Bernard, explains a lot.

Let's hope he manages to 'incite' the whole team – not just Bernard, eh!

Thanks for the definition of incite, I thought it had something to do with inner thoughts and behind the scenes. Can it be used as a noun or verb? Everton are going to need your 'incite' today.

Pickford
Sidibé Keane Holgate Baines
Gomes Davies Delph
Walcott Calvert-Lewin Richarlison

Playing as 4-5-1 initially and morphing into 4-3-3 once the game has settled down.

I would like to see Baningime play in centre-midfield but can't see it happening.

What has happened to Gordon? He seems to have fallen off the face of the earth?

I'll leave team selection to Carlo, but I would like to see Tom Davies get a run of games alongside Gomes to give him the chance to prove he can be an important player for us in the same way Holgate has. If he doesn't seize the opportunity, then at least we know where we stand. Odd appearances every few weeks don't help him or the team.