Three Things Learned from Everton 0-0 Chelsea

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Everton played out of their skin at lunchtime on Saturday, holding Premier League Champions Chelsea to a 0-0 draw. What did we learn?

1. Sam Allardyce is fearless

Everton were massively outgunned when they came into their clash with Chelsea, and simply getting the draw they did in the end would have been hard to imagine before kick-off.

So imagine how Everton fans must have felt when, at half-time, Sam Allardyce made two changes and changed formation. Off went Tom Davies and Aaron Lennon and on came Ashley Williams and Sandro.

It was a phenomenally bold move, and could have been seen as a needless risk. But it worked, because Everton were more solid playing 3-5-2 than they were playing 4-2-3-1 and had Michael Keane kept his late header down Everton could have won.

Sam Allardyce’s confidence in changing system like that is a sign that the Everton boss isn’t afraid of anything, and that’s bad news for Everton’s rivals this season.

2. Michael Keane is back in the saddle

Michael Keane has struggled so far this season. The young centre-back is undeniably brilliant, and was repeatedly so for Burnley in 2016/17, but watching hm for Everton before Saturday felt strange,. He looked off.

Sam Allardyce has mostly not used Keane either, which at first felt like Allardyce minimising the young defender, It turns out that he was simply giving Keane time out of the Everton spotlight, allowing him to ease his way back into things.

Keane came in against Chelsea and was utterly magnificent. He won 3/4 aerial duels, 2/3 tackles, made 5 clearances and 8 interceptions. He was the best player on the park and supremely marshalled the Chelsea front-line, refusing to get out-done by any of their superstars.

3. Conte’s issue with Batshuayi is a problem

Antonio Conte seems to have a serious problem with Michy Batshuayi. The Belgian was signed by Chelsea for £30m and then barely featured in his debut campaign. He’s played slightly more here, but still not too much.

But that’s not weird right? After all Diego Costa and now Alvaro Morata are better than him. What’s that? Costa is gone and Morata is injured? And Batshuayi still isn’t playing? Wait, what?

It’s hard to believe because, in all honesty, it’s so perplexing. Conte seems determined to not playing his genuine quality back-up striker, and it’s now costing Chelsea points. After the match today he actually said “our striker, Morata, was out” as an excuse for Chelsea not winning.

Against Everton there were so many passes and crosses being sent into the box that a striker would have attacked with glee, but as Chelsea played Eden Hazard as a false nine they had nothing. Chelsea had 26 shots but only 8 were on target; it was just too easy for Everton to defend.

If Alvaro Morata is going to continue to miss games like this, then Antonio Conte needs to get over himself and bring Batshuayi back into the Chelsea line-up.