Everton v Chelsea – as it happened - The Guardian (blog)

This season, I think, I've only done about eight MBMs and more than half have been Chelsea games, including last Sunday's 8-0 drubbing of Aston Villa. Switching David Luiz into midfield and Branislav Ivanovic to centre-half have given Chelsea a much more solid platform than they had when I last wrote about them away in Donetsk. Today's match at Goodison pits Rafa Benítez's side against one of the "smaller teams", there I've said it. Most of the previews have been built on the foundations of that quote from 2007 and speculate on the reception the former Liverpool manager will receive. The Sunday Times reckons it'll be more joshing than vituperative, "there will certainly be some rousting of Rafa, but much will be pantomime jeering". He'll cop the usual, I think, and sit there impassively as he has when given the bird by Chelsea fans.

A draw will be good enough for Chelsea to move back into third place, while Everton need to win by two goals to leapfrog Tottenham. This is the 11th Premier League match between the two at Goodison since David Moyes arrived from Deepdale – Chelsea have won five, Everton three and there have been two draws. Yet Everton's three victories have come in the last three meetings here, 2-0 in February with goals from Pienaar and the sub-editor's nightmare Stracqualursi, 1-0 in 2011 when Jermaine Beckford turned Alberto Tomba and 2-1 in 2010 when Lousi Saha scored twice after Florent Malouda had given the visitors the lead.

Moyes's first home match against Chelsea came in his first full season, a 3-1 defeat. These were the starting XIs:
Everton: Wright; Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Unsworth, Naysmith; Carsley, Gravesen, Lie Tie, Radzinski; Campbell.
Chelsea: Cudicini; Melchiot, Desailly, Gallas, Le Saux; Stanic, Lampard, Petit, De Lucas; Zola, Hasselbaink.

John Terry came on as a second-half substitute for De Lucas, so there are two players still at Chelsea 10 years on from that game and one for Everton, in Tony Hibbert.

Early team news:
Everton (not official): Howard; Jagielka, Heitinga, Distin, Baines; Naismith, Hitzlsperger, Osman, Pienaar; Anichebe, Jelavic.

Chelsea (not official): Cech; Azpilicueta Ivanovic, Cahill, Cole; Lampard Luiz; Ramires Mata Hazard; Torres.