When Chelsea FC hosts Everton on Monday night, it’ll be a massive match with a ton of top four implications. Sure the Premier League title race is done and dusted at this point, but the UCL qualification derby is definitely as exciting as its ever been.
After Manchester City, no one’s slot in the top four is assured, but you have five teams (these two sides, plus Manchester United, Leicester City and Liverpool) fighting it out for three spots. Plus Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa maintain an outside shot of slipping in as well.
Everton at Chelsea FC FYIs
Kickoff: Mon. March 8, 6pm, Stamford Bridge, BT Sport 1
Team News for Both Sides: go here
Odds: Everton 6/1, Chelsea 3/5, Drawย 6/1
Form Guide: Evertonย DLLWWW Chelsea WWWDDW
Referee: David Coote
Alonso ยฃ24m
Kepa ยฃ72m
Werner ยฃ50m
Havertz ยฃ75m
Jorginho ยฃ57m
Pulisic ยฃ58m
Emerson ยฃ18m
Zouma ยฃ12mยฃ366million sat on Chelseaโs bench. Is it only an interesting stat when itโs City?
— Goaterโs Motors (@goatersmotors) February 28, 2021
As you can see from the tweet above, in any given Chelsea match, players who accumulated, on composite, hundreds of millions of GBPs in transfer fees will ride the pine. There will be bigger bucks benchwarming the more fit the squad is at the given moment and right now the Blues are nearly fully fit.
So who’s in and who’s out? Well, it’s up to Tuchel of course, but we’re hoping Christian Pulisic finally makes his first league start under the new boss. It’s getting to be ridiculous actually, how little the German uses his former player at Borussia Dortmund.
Yes, the American has battled some injuries this season, but it was just a few months ago that he was the side’s best player during Project Restart. As for Everton, they have a few injury concerns, but they’re a big money side with a lot of depth too and manager Carlo Ancelotti is of top pedigree.
He’ll field a strong side for this crunch clash.
Starting XI Predictions
Chelsea (3-4-2-1): Mendy; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger; Chillwell, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Pulisic;ย Werner
Everton (4-3-1-2): Pickford; Holgate, Keane, Godfrey, Digne; Doucoure, Allan, Andre Gomes; Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin
Prediction: Chelsea 1, Everton 1
Dig in, as prime scoring chances will likely be few and far between in this one.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered withย News Now.ย Banks, the author ofย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,โ has regularly appeared inย WGN,ย Sports Illustrated,ย Chicago Tribuneย andย SB Nation.ย Follow himย onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
