Chelsea 3-3 Everton: 5 Talking Points

Was John Terry offside when he scored the equaliser?Guus Hiddink continued his unbeaten run during his interim spell but his Chelsea side could only draw 3-3 with Everton at Stamford Bridge. After a cagey first half, both teams sprang to life in the second. A John Terry own goal was quickly followed by a sublime Kevin Mirallas turn and volley as Everton ran out of the blocks in the second half to establish a 0-2 lead. But the Blues sooon hit back. Diego Costa started the fightback after latching on to a brilliant Cesc Fabregas pass and beating Jagielka and Howard before tapping into the empty net. Costa returned the favour two minutes later, setting up Fabregas to score with the aid of a deflection. As the Blues pushed forward for a winner, substitute Ramiro Funes Mori looked to have grabbed all three points as he kicked in Deulofeu’s cross in added time. But in the final minute, John Terry pounced on a ball into the box and back-heeled the ball in. Replays showed that the Chelsea skipper was clearly offside, much to the dismay of the Everton faithful, but the Blues fans could not care less as we saw one of the loudest cheers in Stamford Bridge this season.Here are the major talking points from the game.

#1 Blues stage fightback

Chelsea’s home record this season makes for grim reading – 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses. Countless times this season, the Blues have wilted as their home games have gone on and come on out on the losing side in tight contests.

Thus, when the Blues went two goals behind in the second half, it looked like it was game over. Chelsea had shown little in way of attacking adventure at that point and it was hard to see them mustering two goals and this only made the fightback even more special.

Cesc Fabregas went deeper after Nemanja Matic’s substitution and began dictating the game. The Spaniard has enjoyed a fresh renaissance in 2016 – with his improvement being a huge factor in Chelsea scoring 10 goals in the last 4 games.

Diego Costa was certainly up for it, chasing down lost causes and generally being the Costa we saw early last season. The Everton midfield duo of Besic and Gareth Barry, solid all game and keeping the ball, was suddenly unable to withstand the onslaught and play the ball out.

They will need to come up with these kind of performances from the start, rather than when being behind two goals down if they hope to somehow salvage this season with a domestic or continental cup run.

#2 Everton fail to convert performances into results again

Since throwing away a 95th minute winner away to Bournemouth on 28 November, Everton have dropped 11 points from winning positions – six more than anyone else. They have only picked up one league win now in the last nine outings, and their inability to see games out is getting more and more infuriating for the Everton faithful.

After throwing a 3-2 lead in the final 10 minutes against Stoke, Everton again wilted here once the Blues staged a comeback. After Funes Mori’s winner, Everton’s attempts at closing at the game were just not good enough. They kept trying to play the ball out but were unable to do so and allowed Chelsea to launch a seige at their goal.

Then in the deciding moment, they lost three crucial headers to Chelsea players before allowing John Terry to score. Everton can rightly blame the linesman but that should not excuse their approach.

Roberto Martinez stated after the match how their team tries to be positive and play the ball out no matter what the circumstances but the approach is clearly not working out for the Toffees at the moment. They will most likely need to learn to tighten up in the game if they are hoping to get out of this rut.

Everton are currently in 11th place – 10 points off the top four. If Martinez fails to deliver a cup this season, then this league campaign and season overall can be considered a massive failure with this group of players.

#3 Fabregas and Costa back to their best

The Mikel-Matic midfield combo was almost non-existent in an attacking sense and failed to show the defensive solidity that was expected. Matic’s substitution for Oscar was well overdue as the Serbian once again failed to recover his old self and this resulted in Cesc Fabregas going back to his deeper role alongside Mikel.

While his defensive ability is still suspect, Mikel’s ultra-defensive approach and brilliant short passing allows Fabregas to dictate the game better than when paired with Matic. The Spaniard’s passing range was on full show as he found his teammates with ease.

Fabregas rolled back to 2014 by finding Costa with a sublime long ball to grab a goal back for Chelsea. He then started and ended a glorious team move to equalize two minutes later, finding himself in space for a shot but needing a deflection to score. Having a role in both of Chelsea’s goals against West Brom as well as against Scunthorpe and Crystal Palace, his return to form has been one of the major positive of Guus Hiddink’s tenure.

The other person back in form is Diego Costa. Getting in behind Phil Jagielka, Costa got the ball past Tim Howard to score his 5th goal in 5 games under Guus Hiddink. He then set up Fabregas for the equalizer. Costa has shown a return to his old self, with aggressive demeanour and tussles being a secondary part of his game rather than the focal point. He is certainly up for the fight in resurrecting this season and will need to keep on performing like this if Chelsea are to salvage something.

It is worth noting that under Guus Hiddink, Chelsea have scored atleast two goals or more in every game bar the stalemate at Old Trafford. Both Fabregas and Costa did not play that game.

#4 Chelsea\'s defensive issues still not resolved

While Chelsea’s attacking woes have seemingly gone away for the time being (Eden Hazard still has to return to this team and can lighten up the attack further), it is the defence that is in the spotlight for the time being. The Blues have now conceded eight goals in five home games since Jose Mourinho was sacled.

Branislav Ivanovic, while an improvement on his past performances early in the season, is still having to be constantly covered by his teammates. His suspectibility to pace on the flanks as well as his inability to track back quick enough from his forward forays is still a problem. Maybe a move back to his position as a centre-back is what is needed for the Serbian after this season.

John Terry’s lack of pace is still holding the team back and preventing them from going on a proactive high-pressing approach. The captain is still brilliant with his positioning, tackling and interceptions, but he needs to be covered with a pacey centre-back and a defensive minded full-back like Cesar Azpilicueta to compensate.

Kurt Zouma has done really well to cover for both these deficiences with his pace and ability but he too is very young and commits basic positional and concentration errors. That will improve over time. Meanwhile, Azpilicueta has been his solid, dependable self that we have come to know over the past seasons, but he too is looking more vulnerable this season.

Midway through the winter transfer window, there does not seem to be much in the way of new arrivals to West London for the time being. When you combine that with the fact that there is no Nemanja Matic of 2014 in there to snuff out attacks before they even start, the situation looks bleak.

#5 Fringe players make their case

After his horror show against West Brom, it was a bit of surprise to see Pedro retain his place over Kenedy on the left flank. After a dour opening 45 minutes, Pedro upped his game during the second half but was still nowhere near what he is capable of.

Kenedy came on for him and looked bright again. Full of strength and running, the Brazilian has had a good start to life as a Chelsea player. He had a part in a team move that could have possibly won the game for the Blues, where Costa failed to get a proper touch on a cut-back. He is certainly a very exciting player to watch, evoking memories of Arjen Robben’s time at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea fans clearly feel that the youth players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy and Bertrand Traore deserve minutes considering how the senior first team players have failed to perform. While Hiddink is giving them substitute appearances at the moment (as opposed to no time), the young players might be in line for a start soon. It will be interesting to see whether Pedro, Kenedy or potentially a returning Eden Hazard will play on the left flank against Arsenal next week.

Meanwhile, Muhamed Besic also took his chance well for Everton. Blighted by injury problems thus far (he was the one who came off for Steven Naismith in the reverse fixture), Besic was given a game ahead of Tom Cleverley and was arguably the best midfielder in the game.

As well as being a destroyer, Besic distributed the ball well and ensured that Everton dominated the opening half of the game. With James McCarthy soon back from injury, Besic will certainly need to keep up this run of form if he hopes to keep his role in the side.