Match date: 11 February 2015

When these two sides met earlier in the season, it resulted in a 6-3 win for Chelsea. It was a very atypical Mourinho performance, with the game being extremely open. Since then, however, Chelsea have solidified their defence and are top of the table, while Everton have had poor season compared to last year’s campaign.

Mourinho made four changes to the starting XI that beat Aston VIlla 2-1 at the weekend, bringing in Petr Cech for Courtois, Zouma for Cahill, Remy for Drogba, and Cuadrado, Chelsea’s newest player, in for Oscar. Mourinho continued in a 4-2-3-1.

Martinez made three changes to the side that drew Liverpool 0-0 in the Merseyside derby, with Tim Howard back in goal, Barkley in for McCarthy, and Aaron Lennon, on loan from Tottenham, in for Mirallas. Martinez’s side also played in a 4-2-3-1.

Chelsea Attack Wide

Chelsea’s four attacking players, Remy, Hazard, Cuadrado, and Willian are all incredibly pacy players and it led to what was, again, an open match between the two sides. Chelsea were very capable at playing on the counter and, at times, the game was frantic with both sides getting forward, but neither creating any real chances. However, Chelsea were undoubtedly the better side going forward, both on counter attacks and in slower, patient build up play in the Everton half. Regardless of how they attacked Everton, Chelsea consistently found success in the wide areas.

During the first half, their best play came down the left side of their attack through Hazard and Azpilicueta. The two linked up very well and both created chances, including a cross from Azpilicueta that was inches away from Hazard getting a toe on after John Stones allowed the ball to go past him and have it just about reach Tim Howard with the Belgian getting on the end of it. A lot of their success came because of Aaron Lennon’s high position, leaving Seamus Coleman to contain Hazard and Azpilicueta by himself. This was perhaps by design from Martinez, hoping that Lennon’s pace would serve as an out ball for Everton, but instead it left them vulnerable and Besic had to slide from centre midfield to cover Lennon and the Bosnian was carded early on for a foul on Hazard.

While their success came on the left during the first half, Chelsea began to attack the right side during the second half and the trio of Hazard, Cuadrado, and Willian (who will get a mention later) were much more fluid in their movement, swapping positions. As Azpilicueta was in the first half, Ivanovic was key in the second half when Chelsea attacked, especially in the air. The Serbian acted as a target man for long balls, something that Chelsea lacked with Diego Costa suspended, Drogba on the bench, and Loic Remy not providing an aerial threat. Ivanovic found himself in 1v1 situations with Naismith and Oviedo.

Willian, Matic

Perhaps the real key to Chelsea’s success in the wide areas, however, wasn’t Hazard and Cuadrado or Ivanovic and Azpilicueta, but rather Willian. The Brazilian played through the middle for much of the match, behind Remy, but his movement brought him all around the attacking third for Chelsea. He often found himself drifting from side to side to create overloads in the wide areas. As mentioned above, Besic and later McCarthy, were forced to leave the centre of the pitch to support Coleman, with Lennon failing to get behind the ball effectively and so Willian, with Ramires and Matic occupying Barry and Barkley, found himself free to create 2v1 and 3v2 situations in the attacking third. Of course, he also grabbed the game’s lone goal, but it was telling of his performance.

With the way Everton defended, Matic was allowed to see plenty of the ball. Below is a more indepth look at how Everton defended, but in summary, Everton allowed Matic time on the ball and tried to limit the influence on Chelsea’s more creative, attacking players. Matic, however, showed his ability to break the lines on the dribble and with his passing. A number of times he led Chelsea’s attacks from deep, which really opened up Everton’s midfield. Early on, a perfect example, showed him get through Besic and Barry and then easily shrug off a recovering Barry.

Everton Defend Deep, Lukaku Outlet

As the game settled, Chelsea began to have good spells of possession and forced Everton to get just about everyone behind the ball. Everton defended relatively well. They kept their shape, limited the space between the lines, and limited the space behind where Remy could run into. Below is a good example of how they defended, which included allowing Ramires (in this case) and Matic (as mentioned above) to have plenty of time on the ball.

Everton’s deep defending left Lukaku very isolated, but the big Belgian striker did really well for his side. He offered runs down the channels, though would often run down the left with Zouma rather than take on Terry, and checked to the halfway line for Everton to play him the ball. When he did the latter, neither Zouma or Terry would follow, but Lukaku rarely turned with the ball and dribbled at the dou, instead he would lay the ball off to a midfield runner, such as Barkley or Naismith. Despite defending deep, when Everton did get the ball to Lukaku, there were always three players that were quick to support the striker and it made Everton much more of a threat, but often times the final ball was played to the wrong player or at the wrong time and Everton’s attacks broke down as quickly as they started.

Conclusion

Chelsea may have found a bit of luck in their win. Lukaku had an excellent chance to put Everton up 1-0, but Cech somehow made a save on the attempt, but perhaps it is moments like that that Mourinho knew would happen when he opted to sell Lukaku in the summer.

Chelsea did well to overload the wide areas and create chances from good play around the box, while Everton failed to ever really get sustain possession inside Chelsea’s half, with their attacks limited to sparse counter attacks.