The Sam Allardyce revolution continues apace at Goodison. Another match, another clean sheet. More to the point, another elevated opponent going home scratching their heads as to how they did not seize three points.
It was a classic Allardyce performance. A side who latterly gave every appearance of forgetting how to defend, frustrating a sparkling Chelsea front line, Michael Keane, Jonjoe Kenny and Jason Pickford in the process demonstrating that young English players know precisely how to behave when their backs are to the wall.
Wayne Rooney, who has been on sparkling form since Allardyce arrived in the Goodison dug out, was laid low with man flu, so Everton were without their creative fulcrum.
And Chelsea too were depleted. With Alvaro Morata suspended for his fifth yellow card of the season, Eden Hazard was ostensibly playing up front for Chelsea. But this was not playing up front in the manner of, say Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Hazard was everywhere, dropping deep, playing on the wings, at one point picking up the ball from Victor Moses on the halfway line and zigzagging through much of the Everton team.
But if the idea was to confuse Everton’s defenders, initially it didn’t work. Even if the opposition’s tactics were lost in the fog shrouding Goodison, this was a Big Sam defence.
Everton’s players put in an epic defensive shift to keep Chelsea out on a frustrating day for the champions
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