Everton vs Chelsea prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2024-12-21 14:00.
[p]Everton enjoyed a significant day in their modern history on Thursday when the Friedkin Group’s 99.5% purchase of the club was officially announced. Locals will hope that recent relegation battles, points deductions and financial issues will now be a thing of the past, but before they can look forward to a more ambitious future, the Toffees need points quickly, with just three between them and the bottom three coming into the round – albeit they hold a game in hand. [/p]
[p]Sean Dyche’s position will now be under even greater scrutiny, so he’d welcome a shock win here over in-form Chelsea in front of his new bosses. Victories have been a rare commodity of late for the Merseysiders with just one in their past seven league outings, yet four draws (L2) including holding title-chasing Arsenal 0-0 last week does show how hard they’ve been to beat of late. [/p]
[p]Chelsea’s red-hot attack is sure to test their hardiness here, as the Blues battered Shamrock Rovers 5-1 on Thursday in European action to make it eight straight competitive wins. The last league success in that run was a 2-1 victory over Brentford, meaning since the start of May, Chelsea have scored more goals (51), won more games (15) and earned more points (49) than any other Premier League side! [/p]
[p]They will hope they can build on that again here as they look to keep the pressure on Liverpool at the top, yet history suggests this will be a tough test for Enzo Maresca’s men. Chelsea have lost five of their previous six visits to Goodison Park (W1), with four defeats coming ‘to nil’. [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who needs one more start to reach 200 for Everton in all competitions, has scored two league career goals against Chelsea, both coming at home in the month of December. Cole Palmer has happy memories against Everton after netting a home hat-trick against them in April (W 6-0), plus with 57 shots and 44 chances created, he is the only player to have been involved in over 100 attempts in the league this season.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Ahead of the round, no side has recorded more clean sheets across Europe’s traditional big-five leagues than Everton since the start of October (six). [/p]
[p][i]Written by David H[/i][/p]