It’s a big game in the fight for European football.
Chelsea make their first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium as they take on Everton in an important contest in the race for European football.
Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea are coming off a bruising Champions League exit at the hands of holders Paris Saint-Germain and can ill-afford another defeat in the Premier League following last week’s home loss to Newcastle United.
The sixth-placed Blues have a chance to leapfrog Liverpool, who were beaten at Brighton and Hove Albion, and Aston Villa into fourth place with victory. Defeat would leave them looking over their shoulders at Everton, who are just five points behind Chelsea.
Everton have struggled for results at home this season, but will have reason to believe their European dreams can become a reality if they can pile more misery on Chelsea.
101GreatGoals has the full team news.
Everton team news
Everton make one change from the side that suffered a late 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
That sees captain James Tarkowski return to the side, with Tim Iroegbunam dropping to the bench.
James Garner moves from right-back into midfield, with Jake O’Brien shifting from centre-back to right-back.
Everton: Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye; Beto.
Everton substitutes: Travers, Patterson, Barry, Dibling, Coleman, Branthwaite, Rohl, Iroegbunam, Armstrong.
Chelsea team news
Rosenior makes three changes from the team swept aside by PSG.
Wesley Fofana comes in for the injured Trevoh Chalobah at centre-back, while right-back Malo Gusto is back from illness and takes the place of Mamadou Sarr.
Romeo Lavia comes in for Andrey Santos in midfield.
Chelsea: Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Hato, Cucurella; Caicedo, Lavia; Palmer, Enzo, Neto; Pedro.
Chelsea substitutes: Sharman-Lowe, Acheampong, Adarabioyo, Sarr, Essugo, Santos, Estevao, Garnacho, Delap.
Where to watch Everton v Chelsea: TV and online streams
Everton v Chelsea kicks off at 5:30pm UK time. It will be broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. It is also available to stream via Sky Go.
Stats for Everton v Chelsea
- Everton have lost just one of their last eight Premier League home games against Chelsea (W5 D2), going down 1-0 in August 2022.
- Following their 2-0 win in December, Chelsea are looking to complete the league double over Everton for the first time since 2016-17.
- Everton have failed to score in 12 of their last 19 Premier League games against Chelsea, including each of the last four in a row. Overall they’ve drawn a blank in 28 Premier League meetings with the Blues, only doing so more against Manchester United (29).
- Following their 2-0 win against Burnley at the start of the month, Everton are looking to win consecutive Premier League games at the Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time. This is the latest into a Premier League campaign they’ve not won consecutive home games since 2014-15 (April).
- Chelsea have lost two of their last three Premier League games (W1), as many as they had in their previous 13 (W5 D6). Having kept a clean sheet in their first league game under Liam Rosenior (2-0 v Brentford), the Blues have now conceded in each of their last eight.
- Chelsea’s João Pedro has been involved in eight goals in his last eight appearances away from home in all competitions (7 goals, 1 assist). His 11 away goals in total in all competitions this season is the most by a Chelsea player in a campaign since 2019-20 (Tammy Abraham, 12).
