Everton vs Chelsea

Everton play host to Chelsea in their 2022/23 Premier League opener on August 6 as Frank Lampard faces his former side at Goodison Park.

Godfrey plays a rank backpass and the England goalkeeper strains to stop it from going out for a corner. The Chelsea forward has a tight angle to work with and Godfrey gets back to make a last-ditch challenge, before landing in a heap with Pickford and Havertz. Unfortunately, Godfrey looks to have injured himself in the melee and Mason Holgate is getting ready to come on. I sails over the Chelsea box but Mykolenko sends in a lovely delivery from the left. Azpilicueta can't get to the loose ball and Everton are away on the break. But Havertz lurked on the left of the attack and remained on the periphery of the contest. 39th minute: Chelsea look the better side but are yet to create anything clear-cut as Pickford fists away a James cross. Injury time coming up and there's going to be a lot of it. The Colombia international was under a little bit of pressure from Sterling but it all looked quite innocuous. Chelsea are good value for a win that won't live particularly long in the memory. There were two standout moments, each to thwart the lively Gray — a first-half block to cut out a pass that looked set to put Gordon through on goal and the second a challenge to divert the winger’s shot behind. Lampard brought the already veteran Silva to Chelsea on a one-year contract in 2020. It was left to a more familiar source of Chelsea goals to find the breakthrough.

Frank Lampard has picked his first starting lineup of the season and he's gone with an interesting selection of players there.

26’ - McNeil loses the ball in his own third to Sterling and gives away a corner. 43’ - Chelsea have the ball in the net and it’s offside! The rebound comes a long way out where Gray drops his shoulder and turns his man, Gordon is in acres of space with nothing but the goal in front of him, and Gray can’t get his pass to him... James overhits this one and it goes out the other side finally. Jorginho up to take it, Mina is getting in his face, and is now booked as we have a melee in the box. 52’ - Penalty Chelsea! Chilwell turns Doucoure and is into the box, Doucoure pulls him back and the Chelsea player goes down very easily. Cleared partly, James shot from outside the box blocked for a corner from the right now. 51’ - Everton counter down the left, McNeil gets into space and tries to find Doucs in the area, corner. Ball into the box, Iwobi’s shot blocked, goalmouth melee, Doucs shot blocked, it falls to Holgate, charged down and then eventually Mendy collects. Cucurella cross met by Sterling in the box and the fullback slides over to block, the ball fizzes past Pickford’s right foot as he is wrong-footed. 81’ - Mykos is booked for bringing Havertz down on the run. 90+11’ - Freekick to the Blues, Cucurella booked on but for timewasting.

as it happened: live blog, updates, highlights, lineups, comments, etc.

Ian Quillen gives his detailed thoughts, plus his top pick, for Saturday's Premier League showdown between Everton and Chelsea.

That’s a higher rate than the -130 odds and implied 56.5% probability. The opening weekend can make for fruitful opportunities betting the over, where teams feel freedom and opportunity, with the pressure of the EPL grind yet to build. A wager on Both Teams To Score (No) hit in six of Lampard’s nine home matches in charge and 12 of Chelsea’s 19 away EPL fixtures. One constant across the whole season was Chelsea’s reverse home/away splits. However, Chelsea then dropped points five times in eight EPL matches, including a 1-1 home draw against an Everton side then managed by Rafa Benítez. However, where will the goals come from this season?

Frank Lampard and Chelsea have started a lot of scrutinized Premier League seasons together. This one sees Everton's boss and his former club as opponents.

Will Kalidou Koulibaly deliver the goods in the place of Antonio Rudiger in a late-arriving Premier League debut season? In Dwight McNeil and James Tarkowski, at least, they’ll have more experience in fighting at the foot of the table. How will Everton bounce back from Richarlison’s exit?

Saturday has kicked off with a bang as Fulham showed that an away trip to a newly promoted side is no easy task even for a team like Liverpool. An early goal ...

Thomas Tuchel has a lot to work out with his team while Everton can take a lot of positives from the match. It was an unfortunate first half for Everton who performed to the best of their abilities but still went into the break behind. Amadou Onana was in the crowd watching as he'll be in the Everton midfield sooner than later after they agreed to a deal with Lille but for Chelsea, even with Armando Broja on the pitch they were missing a proper nine. Gray put an excellent cross into the box for Gordon but Koulibaly steps up to clear the chance. Patterson played Dele Alli into space and he didn't know what he wanted to do with the ball. He was bright along with Kalidou Koulibaly in making their debuts Saturday but most of the team didn't shine along with them. Thomas Tuchel has a lot to work out with his team while Everton can take a lot of positives from the match. Everton were hit with another injury blow only 18 minutes into the match as Ben Godfrey left the match on a stretcher after a lengthy delay. Ben Chilwell drew a penalty before the half as Doucouré put both hands on his shirt while he was going down in the box. Nunez came to the rescue with nine minutes remaining as he teed up Mo Salah to level and keep up his incredible opening day record of scoring in all six fixtures with Liverpool. Ultimately, it was a point gained by Klopp's men as Fulham outfought them on many occasions while Marco Silva's Cottagers will be heartened by their spirited showing. A clumsy penalty conceded by Abdoulaye Doucouré was the difference in the match as Chelsea defeated Everton 1-0 on opening day. Mitrovic was losing the ball but a penalty was awarded and confirmed after a VAR review.

Everton play host to Chelsea in their 2022/23 Premier League opener on August 6 as Frank Lampard faces his former side at Goodison Park.

— — — — — — — — Sat, August 6 Sat, August 6 Whether Everton's transfer market activity is enough to offset the loss of Richarlison to Tottenham is another matter and Dominic Calvert-Lewin's injury woes have reappeared at an unfortunate time. It was barely half a chance but nicely worked by the hosts.

Jorginho scored the lone goal of Chelsea's 1-0 win over old pal Frank Lampard and Everton on Saturday at Goodison Park in both teams' season debuts.

He should’ve won a penalty and could’ve scored or assisted on a number of other occasions. But Godfrey came off very worse for wear as a stretcher was immediately requested and Mason Holgate, who played well enough, was put into the game. The introductions of Marc Cucurella, Christian Pulisic, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek opened some doors. Not much = Two touches between the 65th and 79th minutes. That was not the case in first-half stoppage time when Abdoulaye Doucoure caught hold of Ben Chilwell on Kalidou Koulibaly’s entry pass into the 18. Now he just needs someone who can run onto those key passes.

Chelsea kick off their 2022/23 Premier League campaign with a tough trip to Goodison Park to take on Everton this evening. Here are the confirmed line-ups:

Dwight McNeil makes his competitive bow for Everton and he supports Demarai Gray in attack for the hosts. Raheem Sterling makes his debut for Chelsea following his move from Manchester City this summer. Edouard Mendy starts between the sticks while Reece James lines-up on the right flank for the Londoners. Ben Chilwell gets the nod on the opposite flank so Marc Cucurella has to settle for a place on the bench having only completed his move to Chelsea on Friday.

Chelsea struggled to get many meaningful chances against Everton but earned a win to kick off their Premier League season.

FW Mason Mount, 5 -- Mount struck a shot well early in the game to test Jordan Pickford in an otherwise quiet game for him. MF Jorginho, 6 -- A cool penalty saw Jorginho send Jordan Pickford the wrong way from the spot to hand Chelsea the lead. 4 -- A win for Chelsea is all that matters, but Thomas Tuchel has plenty to work on after his side's performance today. Silva's reading of the game set the standard for his team. Ten minutes of added time following a medical emergency in the stands forced Chelsea to remain resolute deep into injury time, and they were able to hold on for three vital, hard-fought points. The Toffees reacted well after the break as Demarai Gray found space inside the box before testing Edouard Mendy, and it was the home side who came close again to finding the equaliser but for some desperate defending.

Everton host Chelsea to begin this new season and looking to get off to a positive start to this campaign.

WAGNH: Well, that’s a bit tough to tell with this being the first “real” game of the season, but preseason has seen largely the same ideas, and along with it, the same problems as last season. We have great expectations of Raheem Sterling and Marc Cucurella while Kalidou Koulibaly has been a target for the better part of half a decade. While this Chelsea side is a bit different than last year - with changes made across the squad and regarding ownership - the expectations are still likely as high as ever. How is Thomas Tuchel looking to adjust this side that struggled at points down the stretch of last season even with a third-place Premier League finish? Chelsea FC may have had ownership changes, but their team will present the same challenges as ever before to Frank Lampard and company; getting off to a good start will be that much more important for this team after the relegation battle of 2021-22. With that said, what have the feelings been around west London, this team, and the supporters regarding preseason struggles, player departures, and arrivals as well as new owner Todd Boehly?