A scrappy, niggly affair at Stamford Bridge on Sunday ended in a goalless draw between Chelsea and Everton, with only the two clubs’ defensive assets emerging from the stalemate with notable Fantasy returns.
Eden Hazard‘s owners endured a frustrating afternoon in the Belgian winger’s first league start since Gameweek 9, while Fantasy managers who were sitting on Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson ahead of a home match against Cardiff City after the international break would have been concerned at their injury-enforced substitutions.
We round up the key Fantasy talking points and manager quotes from a tetchy match in west London, including the latest injury updates on Everton’s mid-price midfield pair.
Chelsea 0-0 Everton
Though Marcos Alonso (£7.0m) emerged from Gameweek 12 with a clean sheet and two bonus points to his name, the Spanish left-back’s owners could have easily been dining out on a double-digit return from the premium defender.
“Goalonso’s” attacking numbers have taken something of a tumble since the September international break, with the Chelsea full-back averaging less than one shot per match in the seven Gameweeks preceding this one.
Alonso has instead ticked over nicely with assists and clean sheets in the last two months, but on Sunday, the leading Fantasy Premier League points-scorer was again discernible for his goal threat and came within inches of grabbing a winner for the Blues in west London.
The Spain international clipped the outside of Jordan Pickford‘s (£4.9m) post with a shot from a narrow angle in the second half, but the abiding memory of Alonso from this fixture will be his beautifully connected volley from a well-worked Willian (£7.4m) free-kick that stung the hands of the Everton and England goalkeeper shortly before half-time.
Only Willian and Eden Hazard (£11.3m) had more touches in the final third than Alonso in this fixture, meanwhile.
Hazard hasn’t scored in the league since before the October international break and his owners might have been left disgruntled with Sunday’s blank at the Bridge, but on another day the Belgian talisman could have banked several attacking returns having been the catalyst for his team’s improved performance in the second half.
Hazard had created a “big chance” for Alvaro Morata (£8.7m) within seconds of the resumption of play after the interval, before minutes later fizzing another cross along the six-yard box that the Spanish striker failed to connect with.
And had Alonso’s aforementioned shot crept inside the post instead of rattling it, then Hazard would have collected the assist for the left-back’s goal.
Hazard also laid on a clear-cut opportunity for Willian, who ran onto the Belgian’s beautifully weighted through ball before firing a foot wide of Pickford’s right-hand post.
In terms of his own goal threat, Hazard called Pickford into action with two shots from distance before going closer late in the game when sending a shot wide of the former Sunderland custodian’s goal from inside the Everton box.
No player recorded more shots, take-ons, key passes, touches in the final third, touches in the penalty area and big chances created than the influential Hazard in this fixture.
The west London derby with Fulham in Gameweek 14 is reason enough for Fantasy managers to keep hold of Hazard, but on the evidence of this first 90 minutes for the Belgian in three weeks, there is little to suggest he won’t also deliver an attacking return away at Spurs in a fortnight’s time.
Those two aforementioned chances created by Hazard were the sum of Morata’s involvement, though the in-form striker did have an effort ruled out for offside after a cross from Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.3m).
The fractious nature of the goalless draw also seemed to get the better of Morata, who had claims for a penalty waved away by Kevin Friend and who showed signs of frustration after being repeatedly flagged for offside by the assistant referees.
There was little to champion elsewhere in Chelsea’s midfield or attack, with Willian a peripheral figure other than the chances we outlined above and Mateo Kovacic (£5.9m) – in for the benched Ross Barkley (£6.0m) – also having minimal impact on the game.
Sarri gave this rather unenlightening answer when asked why Barkley was only named among the substitutes yesterday:
Ross played for the 90 minutes in the last match three days ago. We are lucky because we have Kovacic, a great player who is fresh to play today.
Antonio Rudiger (£6.0m) performed admirably at centre-half and shackled Richarlison (£6.9m) out of the game, though a booking picked up in an unsavoury incident with Bernard (£5.9m) cost the German centre-half a bonus point to go with his clean sheet.
After doubts over his fitness were raised in Marco Silva’s press conference on Friday, Richarlison was fit enough to lead the line for Everton but he had next-to-no impact on the game from an attacking perspective, save for a deflected shot wide after only two minutes of the match.
The opening exchanges of Sunday’s game were when Everton did the bulk of their attacking, with Lucas Digne‘s (£4.8m) set-piece deliveries causing havoc in the Chelsea backline and creating half-chances for Andre Gomes and Yerry Mina (both £5.4m).
Thereafter Everton’s performance was one of pragmatism, with Silva highlighting the important off-the-ball roles carried out by Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.5m) in negating the usually influential Jorginho (£5.0m):
This afternoon we didn’t see Jorginho because we block well. Jorginho, in my opinion, is one of the key players for Chelsea this season.
It was one of the keys [to stopping Chelsea]. Fantastic work by Gylfi and Richarlison in the first moment and after with Andre and Gana, we did really well. In my opinion, he’s one of the keys in Maurizio’s system and model this season.
In my opinion, what we miss in some moments is what we did in the first 25 minutes with the ball, we miss in some moments in the second half.
As Silva himself said there, Everton’s goal threat dissipated after the break, though the openings they did carve out came from the boot of Sigurdsson – the ineffectual Bernard and Theo Walcott mis-controlling balls from the Icelandic midfielder when in excellent positions in the second half.
Sigurdsson and Richarlison both hobbled off late in the game and Silva had this to say on his crocked midfielders:
Like you know, [Richarlison] had a small problem during the week. He started to feel a little bit during the match. It looks nothing special, let’s see in the next days how he will react.
I hope we don’t lose Sigurdsson for the next matches after that tackle by Jorginho. Now they come the international match, I think he’s not in condition even to play for his international team. Let’s see the next days how he reacts.
As well as losing Sigurdsson and Richarlison to injury, Silva watched on as Walcott and Digne were given medical treatment in a bruising first half – though both players were fine to continue.
Mina made his full debut for the Toffees at the heart of the defence, with his promotion to the starting XI coming at the expense of the ineligible loanee Kurt Zouma (£5.0m).
Sarri meanwhile reflected on his side’s inability to convert possession into chances, a feature of their performance – at least for the first hour – against Crystal Palace the previous weekend and BATE in midweek:
The last three matches, we created few goal opportunities in relation to how we played. In this moment, it’s maybe a little problem but three matches is a very short time so I don’t know. Maybe it’s by chance, but we have to be careful.
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Arrizabalaga; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho (Fabregas 64′), Kovacic (Barkley 81′); Willian (Pedro 68′), Morata, Hazard.
Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Mina, Digne; Gomes, Gueye; Walcott, Sigurdsson (Jagielka 76′), Bernard (Lookman 64′); Richarlison (Calvert-Lewin 89′).
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